Tribunal clears sale of Ferrari linked to South African corruption probe
A South African tribunal has cleared the way for the sale of a Ferrari SF90 Stradale tied to businessman Hangwani Morgan Maumela, a move that
A South African tribunal has cleared the way for the sale of a Ferrari SF90 Stradale tied to businessman Hangwani Morgan Maumela, a move that could see the hybrid supercar fetch at least R9.5 million.
The Special Tribunal’s decision matters because the car has been sitting in preservation while investigators pursue a wider corruption case at Tembisa Hospital, where the Special Investigating Unit says about R2 billion was looted through irregular procurement.
Costs kept mounting
The Ferrari was bought for more than R11.1 million in April 2022 and belongs to the MHR Maumela Family Trust. The SIU links the trust, along with Maumela, to what it calls the “Maumela Syndicate”.
The tribunal approved the sale after the SIU argued that keeping the vehicle in storage was expensive. The preservation bill includes R5,000 a month for storage and R8,333.33 a month for insurance. Then there are bigger items. Battery replacement alone was put at R104,857, with about R408,000 estimated for warranty reinspections.
That adds up fast.
Part of a wider asset freeze
SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho said the preservation of the Ferrari and other luxury vehicles was meant to stop assets linked to the inquiry from being dissipated while the legal process continued.
The case is one of the more visible offshoots of the Tembisa Hospital investigation, which has drawn attention well beyond South Africa because of the scale alleged by investigators and the value of the luxury goods under restraint. A Ferrari SF90 Stradale is no ordinary seized asset. It is a high-performance hybrid model with a price tag that puts it in rare company anywhere in the world.
For now, the tribunal’s green light opens the door to a sale. What happens next will depend on the mechanics of disposing of the car and how that proceeds alongside the broader SIU probe into alleged corruption and maladministration at the hospital.
