WATCH | Tenderpreneur Hamilton Ndlovu's luxury cars to fetch R7m at auction

Four years ago, tenderpreneur Hamilton Ndlovu posted a video showing off his luxurious purchases of multimillion-rand sports cars which drew public attention to the personal protective equipment (PPE) tender beneficiary.

On Wednesday, the same fleet of cars will finally be sold at an auction that has attracted more than 400 potential buyers. The state is hoping to fetch about R7m from the sale of a 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera, a Lamborghini Urus 4.0 V8 (2019), a Porsche Panamera GTS (2019) and a Porsche Cayenne S (2020) which Ndlovu had claimed at the time he had bought for his family.

According to the auctioneer, the fleet will be sold at a lesser price than they currently cost in the market. Johan Vorster from Park Village Auctions said the current rate for the Lamborghini was R7m but they expect to sell it for between R2m and R3m while the 911 Carrera, which costs R2m, will go for between R1.3m and R1.5m.

The Cayenne is expected to fetch around R1m while its retail price is R1,6m. Vorster said the Panamera, which has clocked 45,000km, will go for anything between R900,000 and R1.1m and its retail price is R2m. 

Bidders are expected to pay a R50,000 deposit for any cars over R1m.

This will be the third attempt by the state to try and recoup some of the R157m that Ndlovu owes in relation to the 19 unlawful PPE tenders that were awarded by the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) to Ndlovu and associated companies.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe found that companies linked to Ndlovu secured contracts by exploiting emergency procurement procedures during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bank statements revealed that only about R15m went towards PPE, while nearly 90% of the funds went to Ndlovu for personal use.

Last year, his Bryanston, Johannesburg, luxury home was sold for R7.1m while bank accounts of companies linked to him were frozen with a R42m balance.

"Since last week Thursday when the online public viewing started, we've had about 400 people viewing these four specific cars and we expect more people to do that tomorrow [on Tuesday]. It's unusual for us to have so many Porsches being sold in one event and this is the fourth Lamborghini we have ever sold in the more than 30 years of the company.

"We expect to get no more than R7m from the sale and that is because these are cars for a specific market and not a lot of people can afford them. A car dealership might just buy all of them," said Vorster. 

The Lamborghini has 31,000km on its mileage clock with a red interior and V8 engine. The car was originally white in colour but Ndlovu wrapped the exterior in bright yellow covering.

A man was seen furiously taking videos of the Lamborghini with his cellphone. "My boss, who is a businessman, sent me from Durban to physically view this car for him. I flew in this morning. He said he was willing to pay up to R3m for this car because there are very few of them in SA," said the man who only identified himself as Andre.

The cars have been with the auctioneer for more than two years, and three months ago the liquidator, Zaheer Cassim Incorporated, allegedly instructed the auctioneer to release the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT back to Ndlovu. The vehicles were supposed to have been auctioned in July last year but the sale was halted subject to a creditor ratification and legal process.

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Sowetan on Monday that it was tracing more houses linked to Ndlovu. 

"I don't have the actual amount that we have recovered from selling his property but we are looking for more houses that could be traced to him. Besides freezing bank accounts, we are still after all his assets and we want to recover as much money as possible," said Kganyago. 

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