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Levies cost woman her home

FIGHTING BACK: Assumpta Zitoni and her two sons have been evicted from their apartment at Madison Palms East, in Sandton, Johannesburg PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
FIGHTING BACK: Assumpta Zitoni and her two sons have been evicted from their apartment at Madison Palms East, in Sandton, Johannesburg PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE

Asssumpta Zitoni's only hope is to get the high court to reverse her sequestration order which she believes was wrongfully orchestrated by a Sandton body corporate.

Zitoni, who hails from Kenya, said she and her late husband migrated to South Africa in 1997 after he found a job in Gauteng.

He died of cancer in 2012.

A freelance specialist nurse at the intensive care unit for heart surgery at Sunninghill and Olivedale hospitals, Zitoni, 40, said she fell into arrears with her levies.

But she kept her bond account in order and even received a letter from Nedbank thanking her for conducting her account well, she said.

Zitoni said she also owed school fees to the tune of R100000 for her two sons, but the school understood her circumstances as she had been a good payer before the death of her husband, she said.

She said she made arrangements to repay the arrears on her levies within seven months, but defaulted.

She said the Madison Palms Body Corporate then instituted legal action against her in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court to recover the R132690 they claimed she owed.

The court granted them a default judgment and the body corporate attached her goods, which included a car and furniture worth R156000.

She said the body corporate sold her Nissan X-Trail, which was estimated to be worth R100000, for R38000, and that after selling her goods the body corporate applied to the high court to declare her insolvent.

She said in the first meeting of the creditors held in May last year, the body corporate could only prove that she owed them R23000.

"The Master of the High Court failed to understand what Madison Palms told the high court to grant the sequestration as the debt was settled when my goods were attached and sold, " she said.

Zitoni said the trustees however proceeded and sold her house in an auction and evicted her a few days after sending her a notice to vacate.

She said had it not been for a caring neighbour, she would have slept in the street with her sons.

Stanley Orelowitz, an attorney representing Angor Properties - the owner of Madison Properties - and the Madison Palms Body Corporate, said Zitoni was not treated unfairly or maliciously, as she alleges.

Orelowitz said there were three judgments and an arbitration issued against Zitoni in respect of the levies and related debts.

He said after a number of unsuccessful attempts to recover the amounts Zitoni owed Angor Properties, they had no option but to sequestrate her.

He said Zitoni owed R221000 and not R23000 as she stated.

Orelowitz said Zitoni's unit was later sold by the trustees of her insolvent estate at a market-related price.

According to Orelowitz, Zitoni's case has been heard by seven judges who have ruled against her on each and every occasion.

"She has brought yet another application for the rescission of the sequestration order against her, and we believe her application has no prospect of success at all," Orelowitz said.

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