Company tenants in the East London industrial zone owed R41-million in unpaid rent in February.
The Daily Dispatch has learned that litigation is under way to recover R31-million and by December R29-million had been marked as bad debt.
However the Elidz, in a lengthy reply yesterday afternoon, said its tenants only owed R27-million.
Spokeswoman Ayanda Ramncwana said 12 tenants were in arrears, of which two were facing litigation, seven were “in negotiation” and three were “acknowledging their debt”.
One company, local diary Sunningdale Diary, owes R17.5-million.
This was disputed by neither the zone nor the tenant, with Ramncwana saying the zone stepped in to rescue a distressed industry, saving jobs.
Sunningdale CEO Pierre van Rensburg said they took over collecting milk from six Eastern Cape dairies a few years ago, after they were dumped by departing transnational corporation Parmalat.
Van Rensburg said they had come to an arrangement with the Elidz and would settle the debt in the near future. Parmalat had left six large dairy farms in the lurch during their top milk producing season, spring – or “flush time” – but despite the financial meltdown of 2008 and ensuing credit crunch, and with the support of the IDZ, they managed to build a dairy in the zone, lost no jobs, and now provide over 400 jobs.
“Our deposit for the new operation doubled as we came to the final stages of the project. “We came to an arrangement with the Elidz, which has been extremely supportive and assisted in saving many jobs.”
Another debtor is Khaya Ngqula’s Africa Sports Holdings which, according to an Elidz document, owes the Elidz R111758 for Buffalo City Metro rates.
This was due for the Alexander Country Club, which Ngqula rented from the Elidz.
The zone paid this bill.
Ngqula confirmed the debt, but said the club was unfairly rated as an industrial concern when he took over in 2012. He said they were negotiating with the zone and BCM to receive a “recreational rebate”.
He called later yesterday, and said of the debt: “It is far less.
“We have been paying it off systematically. We are also up to date with our rent.”
The zone’s February document on defaulting debtors refers to a claim for outstanding African Sports Holdings with the words: “Figure unknown at this stage.”
In their lengthy and detailed response, Ramncwana said they started legal processes for all debtors who are 30 days in arrears.
“The last stage is litigation. We are pursuing litigation against only two of our debtors with a combined debt of R7-million .
“Our priority debtors, whose debt makes up 67% of total value of defaulted debtors, have made payment arrangements for their debt and are currently complying with those arrangements. The remainder are still at the early stages of the internal legal process.”
Asked about low rentals, she said the zone offered its first investors rent discounts of 12% to 20% for a maximum of seven years.
She said this was also “a part response to the lack of IDZ-specific incentives in South Africa at the time despite the promises”.
The discounts were also based on “their socio-economic impact” and attracted investments of R920-million from 14 new investors from June 2006 to March 2008. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Industrial tenants owe Elidz millions of rands
The Daily Dispatch has learned that litigation is under way to recover R31-million and by December R29-million had been marked as bad debt.
However the Elidz, in a lengthy reply yesterday afternoon, said its tenants only owed R27-million.
Spokeswoman Ayanda Ramncwana said 12 tenants were in arrears, of which two were facing litigation, seven were “in negotiation” and three were “acknowledging their debt”.
One company, local diary Sunningdale Diary, owes R17.5-million.
This was disputed by neither the zone nor the tenant, with Ramncwana saying the zone stepped in to rescue a distressed industry, saving jobs.
Sunningdale CEO Pierre van Rensburg said they took over collecting milk from six Eastern Cape dairies a few years ago, after they were dumped by departing transnational corporation Parmalat.
Van Rensburg said they had come to an arrangement with the Elidz and would settle the debt in the near future. Parmalat had left six large dairy farms in the lurch during their top milk producing season, spring – or “flush time” – but despite the financial meltdown of 2008 and ensuing credit crunch, and with the support of the IDZ, they managed to build a dairy in the zone, lost no jobs, and now provide over 400 jobs.
“Our deposit for the new operation doubled as we came to the final stages of the project. “We came to an arrangement with the Elidz, which has been extremely supportive and assisted in saving many jobs.”
Another debtor is Khaya Ngqula’s Africa Sports Holdings which, according to an Elidz document, owes the Elidz R111758 for Buffalo City Metro rates.
This was due for the Alexander Country Club, which Ngqula rented from the Elidz.
The zone paid this bill.
Ngqula confirmed the debt, but said the club was unfairly rated as an industrial concern when he took over in 2012. He said they were negotiating with the zone and BCM to receive a “recreational rebate”.
He called later yesterday, and said of the debt: “It is far less.
“We have been paying it off systematically. We are also up to date with our rent.”
The zone’s February document on defaulting debtors refers to a claim for outstanding African Sports Holdings with the words: “Figure unknown at this stage.”
In their lengthy and detailed response, Ramncwana said they started legal processes for all debtors who are 30 days in arrears.
“The last stage is litigation. We are pursuing litigation against only two of our debtors with a combined debt of R7-million .
“Our priority debtors, whose debt makes up 67% of total value of defaulted debtors, have made payment arrangements for their debt and are currently complying with those arrangements. The remainder are still at the early stages of the internal legal process.”
Asked about low rentals, she said the zone offered its first investors rent discounts of 12% to 20% for a maximum of seven years.
She said this was also “a part response to the lack of IDZ-specific incentives in South Africa at the time despite the promises”.
The discounts were also based on “their socio-economic impact” and attracted investments of R920-million from 14 new investors from June 2006 to March 2008. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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