JOHANNESBURG– The South African Revenue Service (SARS) seized gold coins weighing over 565 kilogrammes, including personal jewellery, watches and cellphones during a raid at the home of the girlfriend of a Sandton-based Zimbabwean business tycoon, Frank Buyanga Sadiqi.
British-born Zimbabwean, Frank Buyanga Sadiqi, 41, claims SARS have refused to meet him and his lawyers to discuss the seizure of the Kruger coins worth over R600 million (US$40 million), TimesLive reported, citing court documents.
In the court filing at the High Court in Pretoria, Buyanga charges: “SARS unlawfully, without justification and without my permission and against my protests seized from me and dispossessed me of gold (Kruger) coins that I had with me at the time… Conservatively estimated, the gold coins that were stolen from my possession are valued at over 600 million rand.”
The SARS forfeiture unit, armed with a court-issued warrant, raided Buyanga’s girlfriend Melinda Busi Dube in Hyde Park on October 26. Buyanga was present at the time.
Dube made a police report and later took the revenue collector to court. Buyanga has now approached the High Court to be joined in Dube’s suit because he claims the forfeited gold belongs to him.
“My involvement in the events of the day on which the illegal SARS raid took place and the fact that the raid was illegally perpetrated on me and the companies with which I am associated with render it essential that I be allowed to make common cause with her application,” he said in court papers.
Buyanga said the gold coins are part of trading stock for his African Medallion Group (AMG), a company founded in 2017. In its profile, the company claims to be “one of the most successful and trusted gold companies in the world.”
