Pinetown businesswoman Sandra Munsamy — a key figure in the multibillion-rand Xmoor Transport family business empire — was snatched in a brazen daylight kidnapping by a gang of armed men, setting in motion a hostage and ransom drama that spanned six months.
But on Thursday, 162 days after she disappeared, Hawks detectives found the KwaZulu-Natal businesswoman alive and shackled in chains in a house in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga.
She returns to a business empire and a family — who once did business with the Guptas in a deal that went sour — in turmoil.
Her kidnapping formed a central pillar in Xmoor’s defence against a claim by fuel company Engen for an unpaid R50m fuel bill.
In the wake of her disappearance, the Hawks said her captors had demanded a ransom of R140m.
Before her rescue this week, the Naicker family, through their lawyer, told the Sunday Times that any indication of financial distress would place her life in danger. They declined to comment further.
Munsamy’s kidnapping was just one drama playing out in the Naicker family in the past six months. While she was held captive, a bitter feud between her nephew Neville Chetty and her brother Alvin Naicker raged in KwaZulu-Natal courts after Chetty was banished from the latticework of Naicker family transport and logistics firms.
In August, Chetty secured a protection order in the Pinetown magistrate’s court against his uncle, insisting his life was under threat.
“He has been calling me repeatedly, swearing me vulgar words, threatening to kill me, saying ‘it will cost me nothing to make you disappear in a blink of an eye’,” Chetty’s application says.
In October, Naicker approached the high court in Pietermaritzburg to have the protection order set aside, contending that Chetty was not his nephew but his father’s brother’s son, and that they did not live on the same property, which meant the Domestic Violence Act under which Chetty obtained the protection order did not apply.
Naicker denied Chetty’s allegations, and said there was no factual basis that would substantiate any reasonable belief that he would pose a danger to Chetty.
Judge Nompumelelo Radebe ruled that the protection order be stayed, pending review proceedings.
Chetty died in a fiery car crash two weeks ago when the car he was travelling in collided with three others. Police are investigating the cause of the crash.
While dealing with family dissent, Naicker and his brother Inderan, both directors of Xmoor Transport, were dragged to court by Engen over an unpaid R50m fuel bill.
In August, Engen went to the high court in Durban to call up a notarial bond over movable property that had been put up as collateral.
In court papers, Engen credit manager Myrna Wilkinson said Xmoor first fell behind on fuel payments in January.
“In March 2019, Xmoor started to experience strain as far as servicing their debt was concerned,” she said, resulting in Xmoor signing an acknowledgement of debt of R35m. Munsamy was kidnapped two weeks later.
After Engen’s successful application, the sheriff of the court descended on Xmoor’s premises, attaching equipment and cars.
But in his responding papers, Inderan Naicker said the notarial bond, which was signed in June, was entered into in error because Munsamy, the company’s chief financial officer, and responsible for overseeing such agreements, had been kidnapped.
He also said Xmoor could not pay Engen because it was owed R100m by a coal mining company called Future Coal.
One of Future Coal’s directors, however, is Inderan’s son, Aston. The Naickers acquired an interest in Future Coal last year through a family Trust called Amelox.
The same day that Inderan took directorship of the company, Future Coal’s former director, France Oupa Mokoena, resigned. Mokoena was exposed in the Gupta leaks as having forwarded Mosebenzi Zwane’s CV to Tony Gupta.
In March 2019, Xmoor started to experience strain as far as servicing their debt was concerned
— Engen credit manager Myrna Wilkinson
Zwane was appointed mineral resources minister shortly thereafter. The Sunday Times reported that Zwane, while on a trip to Zurich, Switzerland, helped pressure mining giant Glencore to sell Optimum Coal to the Guptas and Duduzane Zuma.
In 2017, Xmoor struck a deal with Gupta-owned company Confident Concepts for the lease of plant equipment destined for Optimum Coal.
The arrangement was cancelled when Optimum went into business rescue in 2017.
The Naickers’ lawyer, Feroz Khan, denied any impropriety, insisting Xmoor lost money on the deal and the family were victims of the Guptas.
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