Johannesburg - Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has been accused of being dishonest and misleading the public in their case against Phela-Live Wellness and Fitness Centre.
Phela-Live Wellness and Fitness Centre said Acsa twisted the facts on how its contract was terminated at OR Tambo International Airport.
The fitness Centre, which is a black-owned company, used to run a gym at the OR Tambo International Airport.
This was until Acsa locked the premises they were operating from in 2016, saying the centre had failed to make its monthly rental payments.
The closure resulted in more than R21 million in investment going down the drain, and more than 40 employees losing their jobs.
The fitness centre was opened in 2014, but two years down the line the doors to the centre were shut. Last week, Acsa spokesperson Gopolang Peme told the Sunday Independent that Acsa concluded a lease with Tswelekgotso Trading Enterprise (TTE) for the lease of a wellness centre at OR Tambo for five years. He said TTE defaulted on its rental payments and accumulated to R3 920 395 as of January 2016.
Peme added that after numerous requests and demands to pay the outstanding amount, Acsa cancelled the lease agreement on January 29, 2016. In 2019, the South Gauteng High Court ordered Acsa to restore and grant Phela-Live access to its offices. Acsa claims to have challenged the judgement in the High Court in May 2022. However, there was no appeal on their side regarding the judgement.
Peme said after the court ruled that Acsa should not have closed Phela-Live, Acsa responded that TTE was granted full occupation of the premises, but to date, the company had not been paying.
However, one of the founding members, Tshepo Mokgoatjana, said Acsa has misrepresented the facts.
“Acsa lost the case on spoliation. It is clear in the judgement that what they did is illegal. The judge told them to immediately restore us. The very nature of spoliation is when someone has taken the law into their own hands and has found out that what they did is illegal, you need to restore them to the position they will have been in had you not spoiled. For Acsa to come and say that they have given us the key to open, without compensating us for their illegal act it’s simply mischievous and dishonest,” said Mokgoatjana.
Mokgoatjana said Acsa should have compensated them to resume business. He said he should have been compensated for staff procurement and training, cleaning, equipment servicing and replacement.
“Bearing in mind that our brand has also suffered serious reputational damage and that too will need to be restored.”
Mokgoatjana said it was a blatant lie that the centre owes Acsa more than R3 million in rent.
“The amount is inflated because Acsa has continued to charge rent even after they spoiled. In less than a year, we had already paid Acsa R1.2 million in rent.”
“Before we approached them for that building it laid vacant for over 10 years and was not generating any income for Acsa. We are the ones that renovated and created value in that building. We spend over R21 million renovating it and bringing it to what it is. Now Acsa is inflating the rental towards us even though they never put a cent into renovating it. They are doing this in an attempt to erode the monies owed to us in the damages claim,” added Mokgoatjana.
Mokgoatjana added that by the time the centre was closed Acsa was owing them more than R52 million in unpaid invoices. He said this was Acsa’s strategy to suffocate them.
“They owed us money on the airside surface maintenance project - grass cutting, runway and road maintenance and road marking. Acsa knew that proceeds from the airside surface maintenance projects were supposed to fund the wellness centre while it was taking off. The investment into that building was huge.”
“It is dishonest of Acsa to say that they do not know why we are not operating, whilst they know very well that they cut the water and electricity to the building and as mentioned above they haven’t compensated us for the damages caused by their illegal action.
Attorney and Director at Vuyo Manisi Inc Vuyo Manisi said spoliation is used to restore lost possession of movable, immovable, or corporeal and incorporeal property where possession has been unlawfully deprived.
Manisi added that spoliation is simply when you want back what was unlawfully taken from you.
"If the guys have suffered monetary damage because of Acsa's actions, then they can sue Acsa for damages to be compensated for the monetary loss they have suffered as a result of Acsa's action," he said.
Acsa this week could not provide any proof regarding the challenging of the court order. Instead, Peme said: "TTE has brought a counterclaim for damages in Acsa's arrear rental claim under case number.... The court will determine whether there are any damages suffered and the quantum, therefore."
He further indicated that they were not in any position to respond to the numerous questions posed to them regarding the cleaning, servicing and replacement of equipment as "the matter is before the court."
With regards to witholding payments from Surface Maintenance and Grass Cutting to stifle the company, Peme claimed that was not the case but did not provide details of how and when the invoices were paid.
"TTE has been paid in full for all invoices for the contracts which they had with Acsa being for Surface Maintenance and Grass Cutting. In any event, if there was any money due to TTE, they would have instituted an action against Acsa for such outstanding monies," Peme said.
Acsa further claimed that it had not cut water and electricity to the centre but to this day, the gym owners have to use torches to walk around the centre as there is no power.
"Acsa confirms that it inadvertently locked TTE out of the premises. TTE then brought an urgent application against ACSA which was struck from the roll for lack of urgency in February 2016. Acsa restored TTE with the occupation of the premises on 14 August 2019 following a court order. TTE has had an undisturbed occupation of the Wellness Centre since 14 August 2019 whilst ACSA pursues an eviction application. We dispute that water and electricity were cut to the wellness centre, the water and electricity were restored to the building when TTE was restored with possession," Peme said.