Staff Reporter
BUSINESSMAN James Hatuikulipi has brought forth an urgent application to overturn a judgment which led to the auctioning of his Finkenstein property.
Hatuikulipi and several others were arrested in 2019 in relation to the “Fishrot” scandal, standing trial in connection with an alleged racketeering, corruption and money-laundering scheme involving at least N$300 million. They are accused of accepting bribes from the Icelandic fishing company Samherji in exchange for lucrative horse mackerel quotas.
In the current application lodged in August 2026, Hatuikulipi claims that he has stumbled upon new facts detailing documents that showed that invoices were paid to settle levies on his Finkenstein property, and that despite this, his property was auctioned.
Hatuikulipi, in his application, referenced several payments from June to September 2026 made on his behalf to clear the account by a business partner.
“Yet what exacerbates the entire situation is that even when arrangements were presented to settle the account, the legal representatives of Finkenstein Homeowners Association chose, whether intentionally or through some inadvertence, to not honour the commitment they made and take my business partner up on the commitment he made. Instead, they went on to take steps to make the dispossession of property more likely than. To me, this is simply reprehensible,” Hatuikulipi claimed.
In response, Hellmut Gottlob von Ludwiger, the Chairperson of the Finkenstein Homeowners Association, said that it is too late as the property has already been auctioned off.
“In the main case…the Finkenstein Homeowners Association issued summons against the defendant Hatuikulpi and/or ‘Sinco Investments 15 (Pty) Ltd’ for payment of arrears monthly levies, power and water consumption, interest and penalty charges and costs on the attorney and client scale. Summons was served on the person in charge at the company’s registered address and at its physical address. No appearance to defend was entered and default judgment was granted on 31 October 2023,” Ludwiger said.
He added that a writ of execution for movables was issued and that a Rule 108 application was brought in respect of the company’s vacant 12-erf property and, on 12 April 2024, the property was declared to be specially executable.
A writ of execution against immovable property was issued and the immovable property was sold at auction on 22 July 2024.
Ludwiger further stated that on 12 March 2026, the Court found that the sale in execution was not affected by the POCA proceedings and remained valid and binding, and that it could not be said to have been erroneously sought or granted, as envisaged in Rule 103(1)(a).
“The default judgment can also not be rescinded under Rule 16 simply because the company in fact owes and does not dispute that it owes the debt in respect of which the default judgment was granted. The company can therefore not satisfy the requirement to show that it has a bona fide defence to the claim in respect of which default judgment was granted,” Ludwiger said.
He added that Hatuikulipi’s business partner, a certain Izak Moller, did liaise with the Finkenstein Homeowners Association’s legal practitioner, Mr Marais, by email and loosely intimated that he would make periodic or monthly payments towards the outstanding levy account of the company, Sinco Investments 115 (Pty) Ltd.
He, however, said that payments were not made and that it was the only [payment], and so the sale in execution proceeded.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In other words, Mr Moller did not make any of the payments he undertook to make and so the sale in execution proceeded. At the date of the sale in execution, the amount outstanding was N$183,718.89,” Ludwiger said.
Photo: File
