Sandton clinic must hand back its R2.35m Porsche, appeal court rules
The Supreme Court of Appeal found business rescue could not protect a car the clinic had already lost the right to keep, ending a three-year fight with Capitec.
A Sandton family health centre has lost its final bid to keep a R2.35 million Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupé, with the Supreme Court of Appeal ordering the clinic to return the car to Capitec immediately and awarding costs against it.
The judgment settles a question that matters well beyond one sports car: whether entering business rescue lets a company keep goods it has already lost the contractual right to possess. The answer, from Judge of Appeal Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane with four judges concurring, is no.
As IOL reported on 28 September, the case turns on a finance agreement signed in September 2022. Capitec financed R2.115 million of the purchase price of the 2020 Porsche under an instalment sale agreement, keeping ownership of the vehicle until the full amount was paid. Ubuntu Family Health Centre Grayston was to make 59 monthly payments of R31,638.68 over four years and 11 months, followed by a final balloon payment of R634,500 in month 60.
The clinic fell behind. By October 2023 Capitec had issued a letter of demand giving Ubuntu seven days to settle its arrears or face cancellation. Ubuntu undertook to pay by 17 November 2023 and did not. Capitec cancelled the agreement that day and sent its attorney, with bank representatives, to the clinic’s premises to collect the car.
Ubuntu’s director, Ridwaan Adams, who had paid R100,000 towards the arrears, refused to release the vehicle or say where it was. Capitec extended the deadline to 21 November. At a meeting that day Adams offered R500,000 by 28 November, with talks on the balance over six months, and agreed to arrange a viewing of the Porsche. According to the judgment, neither undertaking was honoured.
On 29 November Ubuntu resolved to enter business rescue. When Capitec’s auctioneer arrived on 1 December, Adams again refused access, saying a court order was required.
That is the legal heart of the matter. Business rescue gives a financially distressed company a temporary moratorium on legal proceedings and enforcement action, including asset repossession, so that it can restructure. The High Court read that protection widely when it dismissed Capitec’s application in February 2025, finding Ubuntu was in lawful possession and that unlawful possession meant conduct such as theft, fraud or robbery rather than simply losing a contractual right.
The Supreme Court of Appeal rejected that reading. Because Capitec had validly cancelled the agreement before business rescue began, the protection did not extend to this vehicle. Business rescue, the court found, does not allow a company to retain property belonging to somebody else once its legal right to possess that property has ended. Ubuntu was in unlawful possession, which entitled Capitec to bring vindicatory proceedings, the mechanism an owner uses to recover property from someone with no legal right to keep it.
The timing is worth noting for anyone following the case. Ubuntu’s business rescue ended in liquidation on 24 May 2024, more than two years before the appeal judgment was delivered. During the High Court proceedings Capitec also questioned whether a family health centre needed a sports car at all, arguing it was probably being used privately. The court did not decide that question, and neither does this judgment.
For South African businesses, the practical point is narrow and useful. Instalment sale agreements are the backbone of how vehicles, plant and equipment are financed in this country, and ownership stays with the financier until the last rand is paid. Business rescue is a genuine second chance for a company in trouble, and it is used to save jobs and keep trading. It is not a shield for assets that were already validly repossessed in law before the rescue began. A company that wants to keep a financed asset inside rescue has to deal with the financier, not simply rely on the moratorium.
For a clinic that served patients in Sandton, the outcome is a costly one. It has been ordered to return the Porsche immediately and to pay the costs of the appeal.
Source: IOL, R2.35m Porsche headache: Sandton clinic loses fight with Capitec
