Plans by boxing promoter and former ANCYL leader Ayanda Matiti to auction off more than 20 Buffalo City Metro vehicles to recover R2.2m allegedly owed to him have suffered a setback.
The East London High Court has dismissed Matiti’s application to reconsider an order staying the execution.
In a ruling handed down last week, the court halted moves by Bunirox (Pty) Ltd, trading as Xaba Holdings, to auction off more than 22 municipal vehicles — including traffic and law enforcement sedans, trucks and bakkies — which were removed from municipal premises on January 15 and 16.
The vehicles were attached by the sheriff after Matiti obtained a default judgment in November 2025 for payment of R2.2m.
Frustrated by what he described as the city’s failure to comply with the order, he instructed the sheriff to attach municipal assets.
The vehicles were due to be auctioned in Quigney on February 12 but were returned to the municipality on Friday after it secured an interim court order.
BCM launched an urgent application to stay the execution pending its rescission application, which seeks to have the November 11 2025 default judgment set aside.
The matter was argued on Monday. On Wednesday, judge Nicholas Mullins dismissed the application to reconsider the stay.
Mullins said he was satisfied that BCM had made out a case for the stay of execution pending its rescission application.
The dispute stems from a sponsorship agreement allegedly concluded in 2023 between BCM and Xaba Holdings.
According to Matiti’s court papers, BCM mayor Princess Faku initiated sponsorship discussions on July 18 2023 during a WhatsApp call involving senior municipal officials.
On August 22 2023, the parties allegedly concluded an oral agreement in terms of which BCM undertook to sponsor a boxing tournament hosted by a subsidiary of Xaba Holdings.
One of the key terms required Matiti to relocate a planned Heritage Month tournament from Mpumalanga to East London in exchange for television coverage and “prime branding visibility and marketing” for the metro.
BCM was to make payment no later than two weeks before the event.
Court papers show that an invoice for R1.7m was submitted on September 21 2023 but was not paid.
The interim order was granted without Matiti’s counsel being present in court.
Outside court on Wednesday, Matiti’s attorney, Akhona Mafani, said the matter would now proceed to the rescission hearing, where the court would decide whether to set aside the November 11 2025 order.
“Should the court find in our favour, it means we’ll take the cars and go sell them.
“Should it be found in BCM’s favour, which I highly doubt, then it means we now have to go back to a trial.”
He confirmed the vehicles were returned to the municipality on Friday.
A date for the rescission hearing has not yet been set.
BCM spokesperson Bongani Fuzile said the metro remained “committed to protecting public resources and ensuring that service delivery to residents is not disrupted by actions that undermine the municipality’s constitutional mandate to serve”.
“BCM exists to serve its people, the residents who depend on municipal vehicles every day for water repairs, electricity restoration, refuse removal, road maintenance, fire and emergency response.
“These are not luxuries — they are lifelines.
“The attempted auction of municipal vehicles following the sheriff’s attachment did not advance justice, and it certainly did not advance service delivery.
“Instead, it threatened to paralyse the very operations that keep communities functioning.”
Fuzile said services were affected while the vehicles were attached.
“The real cost is borne by ordinary residents.
“BCM welcomes the interim court order granted in its favour … which suspends the execution of the order of November 11 2025 pending the finalisation of the municipality’s application for rescission.
“The order further directs that all movable property removed from the municipality, specifically the vehicles, must be returned to BCM,” Fuzile said.
He said the costs of storing the vehicles would be for Matiti’s account.
“This ruling affirms a simple but critical principle — municipal assets exist for public service, not for auction floors.
“These vehicles were never just ‘assets’ — they are tools of service, and every hour they were out of circulation meant residents went without the help they urgently needed.”
Fuzile said the metro would proceed with its rescission application on the basis that the court erred in granting the attachment and removal of municipal assets while the municipality was in the process of filing its response to Xaba Holdings’ main application.
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