Widow loses property case in Gauteng High Court after signing agreements.
The Northa Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has overturned a lower court ruling that restored a property to a woman who claimed she had been deceived into signing away ownership of her home during financial distress.
A full bench of the high court upheld an appeal brought by Key Results Properties (Pty) Ltd and businessman Ernest Phillipus Blignaut against widow, Mmamabiri Leah Kgoele, who had sought to reverse the transfer of her property after it was registered in the company’s name in 2008.
The dispute centred on a Pretoria property that Kgoele and her late husband faced losing after falling behind on mortgage repayments to ABSA. According to the judgment, Key Results, a property investment company, stepped in before the property could be sold in execution and concluded several agreements with the couple in August 2007.
Those agreements included a lease agreement, an offer to purchase, a special power of attorney and later a separate offer allowing the Kgoeles to buy the property back. The property was ultimately transferred into the name of Key Results on 11 March 2008.
