KOSELTRONICS ORDERED TO PAY NEDBANK E3M

MBABANE - The High Court has ordered Koseltronics Investments (Pty) Ltd to pay Nedbank Swaziland Limited over E3 million.

The payment is in respect of various overdraft facilities which the company failed to settle. The court also declared Lot 2521 situated at Thembelihle Township executable. The property was furnished by the company’s representatives as security.

Other respondents in the matter were The Trustees for the time being of the Avali Trust and Lindinjabulo Masina.
The order was issued by Judge Mzwandile Fakudze. The bank had issued summons against the company, claiming the capital sum of E3 153 934.41 and that the property put up as security to be declared executable. 

Agreement

Koseltronics defended the bank’s application.
Nedbank and Koseltronics entered a written agreement in May 2018 after the latter’s request on May 30, 2018 where it acknowledged that the balance it owed to the bank was E2 874 342.58. The bank submitted that it disbursed further funds including E260 000 as per the company’s request.

Koseltronics is said to have paid an amount of E576 996.75 towards reducing the debt to E2 838 938.86. Nedbank said on October 13, 2018 Koseltronics made another application for an overdraft of E40 000 and acknowledged at the time that it owed E2 838 938.36. The bank said the overdraft of E40 000 was granted to Koseltronics.

 According to Nedbank, Koseltronics failed to pay because it claimed to be waiting for funds from the Prime Minister’s Office. The bank later on issued a letter of demand dated March 13, 2019 and the company still did not pay.

Koseltronics and the other defendants informed the court that they were not indebted to the bank in the sum of E3 153 934.41.
“In as much as the first defendant (Koseltronics) did make and/or apply for an overdraft facility with the plaintiff which was approved, the first defendant never received the moneys claimed by the plaintiff (bank),” submitted the respondents.

Benefit

The company acknowledged that it received a sum of E752 460 as a benefit from the overdraft facility.
It argued that the aforesaid amount was paid in full as Nedbank was unilaterally deducting some monies whenever payments were made to the company’s account held with the bank.

It further contended that prior to the overdraft facility being granted, the bank requested surety and property belonging to the Trust was bonded for an amount of E2 million with an additional E400 000.

The arrangement with the bank, according to Koseltronics, was that the overdraft facility was not to exceed the amount of E2 400 000.
“The monies which were received through the overdraft facility never even reached half the maximum amount that the first defendant was entitled to in respect of the maximum amount of E2.4 million; strangely plaintiff is claiming an amount in excess of E3 million yet the first defendant was entitled to E2.4 million,” it was argued on behalf of the company.

Representatives of Koseltronics informed the court that the demand from the bank was received and they queried the amount.

Querries

The bank, according to Koseltronics, made an undertaking to verify the queries and come back.
The company was served with summons while awaiting a response from Nedbank, they argued.

In reply, Nedbank submitted that Koseltronics confirmed the amounts it owed when applying for extensions or additions to the overdraft facility. Nedbank informed the court that as at October 3, 2018, the amount owed by the company had increased to E3 153 934.41 due to charges and interest levied to the account.

The bank also argued that it provided a statement dated May 1, 2019 besides the statement that accompanied the bank’s declaration.
In the court’s analysis, Judge Fakudze found that there were no triable issues and ordered Koseltronics, the Trust and Masina to pay the bank the sum of E3 153 934.41, at five per cent interest from April 30, 2019.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: