Claims of family links surface in Gobabis house deal

THE Messenger of the Court at Gobabis sold a house worth N$280 000 for N$15 000 to his son, the woman at the centre of the legal wrangle claims in an affidavit.

Aletta /Goagoses, a former Police officer whose house was sold to pay a bank debt that started with a wrangle over N$1 000, claims that Messenger of the Court Andries Johannes Frederik Pretorius sold her house to his son and assistant messenger of court Gideon Retief Bosman while she was busy arranging the payment with Standard Bank’s lawyers.She wants the High Court to order an investigation by the Ministry of Justice and the Anti-Corruption Commission into ‘all matters handled by the father and son Messenger of Court partnership’ at Gobabis.Rule 39 of the Magistrate’s Court Rules states that ‘no messenger or person acting on their behalf shall purchase any property offered for sale for himself or for any other person’./Goagoses said this rule was violated.She claims that Pretorius wanted to sell her house ‘at all costs’ since he made no attempt to attach any movable property.The Messenger of Court claimed /Goagoses locked the house and was never at home when they visited up to seven times to serve a warrant of execution against property. As a result they affixed it to her door./Goagoses denied that her house was ever ‘locked and deserted’ as stated by Pretorius.She claimed that such a statement was a fabrication.She also claimed that when she tried to pay off the debt with an initial payment of N$6 000 at some stage in November last year, the bank’s law firm refused to take the money./Goagoses said the firm refused because they had been informed that the house had already been attached for sale at an auction.’It appears that my house had to be sold at all costs,’ she said, adding that the Messenger of Court claimed that the house was without moveable property while that was not the case.She said the fact that the house, worth around N$280 000, was sold for N$15 000 also proved that it was done to enable Bosman to buy the house.She claimed that there was also evidence Bosman proceeded with the eviction proceedings even after the company’s lawyers agreed to hold the matter in abeyance./Goagoses said the process through which Bosman bought the house was ‘fraught with irregularities, and he should never have obtained judgement in the first place’.She will ask the court on May 29 to grant her the opportunity to challenge the sale of her house.christof@namibian.com.na