Going, going, gone … for millions:
After the record-breaking R22 million sale of Irma Stern’s Children Reading the Koran last month, another collection of highly sought-after modern and contemporary art is hitting the market on 16 May, via a live virtual auction.
Art auctioneers Strauss & Co will present over 100 lots of works of art and sculptures, with some estimated to fetch millions.
Works with million-rand price tags include paintings from South African masters such as Stern, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef and Gerard Sekoto, with some high numbers also expected for contemporary pieces from the likes of Nelson Makoma Makamo and Bernie Searle.
Stern’s works are the headliners at the auction with 1944 Still Life with Dahlias and Pumpkin estimated to sell for between R10 million and 12 million. William Kentridge’s You Who Never Arrived is estimated to fetch R1.5 million and a 1902 sculpture by Anton van Wouw, Bushman Hunter, is set to sell for R1 million.
“A gorgeous confection of colour, Still Life with Dahlias and Pumpkin is one of three Sterns in the auction from the artist’s sought-after golden period of the late 1930s and 40s,” says Strauss & Co.
Other works by Stern during her “golden era” set to sell for millions include Arum Lilies with Bananas, estimated to go for R2 million to R3 million; Figures on a Beach expected to fetch R4 million to R6 million; the R4.5 million to R5.5 million painting Malay Woman and Still Life with Flat Irons, Apples, and Blossoms in a Jug with a price tag of R4 million to R6 million.
The impressive catalogue of works on auction spans more than a century of South African art, from the early beginnings of the country’s cosmopolitan art scene, with notable artists such as Van Wouw, Frans Oerder and Pieter Wenning.
There are two museum-grade works by pioneering black modernists Sekoto and Dumile Feni.
“Many of the lots have impeccable provenance, including the Feni drawing, which was consigned by his family estate,” says Dr Alastair Meredith, Strauss & Co’s head of sales.
“Gerard Sekoto’s pre-exile painting of a well-known intersection in central Pretoria, executed in his cool observational style, is part of an important collection that we’re delighted to be handling.”
The work is Sekoto’s 1946 painting Up Prinsloo Street, which is estimated to sell for up to R3.5 million.
The poignant depiction in soft, yet vibrant tones, is said to be of the intersection of Prinsloo and Vermeulen Streets.
The work was conceived before Sekoto left South Africa for Paris, France, in 1947, never to return.
A golden thread through many of the works on auction is a glimpse into the seemingly mundane scenes of everyday lives, while also navigating the tricky balancing act of reality versus romanticism in South Africa.
The painting A Woman Sewing by George Pemba is a nod to the visual history of everyday township life, which depicts an unembellished scene of a woman sitting at her sewing machine.
“Silence fills the room, her stance and gesture are subtle, her expression pensive. It is possible, given that Pemba painted this in 1976, that her mind is caught up in the horrific events of 16 June,” reads the Strauss & Co catalogue.
Other works going under the hammer include Peter Clarke’s 1957 The Acrobat’s Family. But these seemingly charismatic showpeople of the circuses are “multi-generational black artists” who perform for a marginalised audience.
The Live Virtual Auction of Modern and Contemporary Art is scheduled for 7pm on Tuesday, 16 May on Strauss & Co’s website.
Chetty crime family stripped of luxury cars and homes:
A string of luxury properties and vehicles were among the assets seized from the Chetty crime family accused of syphoning about R102.6 million from the police through allegedly corrupt contracts.
The wealth accumulation by the family exemplifies what one well-placed source called a “rags-to-riches” story, because the Chettys allegedly went from sleeping on a kitchen floor to having homes in sought-after neighbourhoods in the north of Johannesburg and Tshwane.
Early morning raids last week greeted Kishene Chetty and his father Krishna Chetty when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) executed a Pretoria high court restraining order to attach 13 homes in upmarket estates and suburbs, as well as more than a dozen luxury and antique vehicles, belonging to the family.
In addition to the homes attached, Kishene and his sister Hanisha Chetty are also trustees in the Chetty Family Trust “which owns four immovable properties and several motor vehicles”, according to the court order.
The NPA claims that the assets were spoils from the corrupt tenders the family received.
A source close to the investigation said the Chettys were destitute when they arrived in Gauteng from KwaZulu-Natal.
“They used to sleep on a kitchen floor in Pretoria before accumulating these luxury items. It would have been an inspirational rags-to-riches story had it not been for the small fact that they acquired their wealth through crooked means,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
The noose is tightening as the Investigating Directorate — a division of the NPA responsible for probing and prosecuting the Chettys — has several other criminal court cases against the family, which allegedly bribed former senior officers to gain lucrative contracts from the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The directorate alleges that 26 companies, which had the Chettys as “beneficial owners”, had more than 50 contracts “unlawfully awarded” to them, the largest tender valued at R59 million to brand police vehicles nationally. The branding case returns to the Pretoria magistrate’s court in December.
Kishene Chetty was also arrested in March for allegedly defrauding the South African Revenue Service (SARS) by declaring income of only R323 797 for the period 2015 and 2021, despite earning nearly R29.3 million through his company, Isimbali Trading and Projects.
The NPA claims that Kishene Chetty deprived SARS of R13.9 million over the six-year period.
Lieutenant General Ramahlapi Johannes Mokwena, the former supply-chain management head within the SAPS, and Brigadier James Ramanjalum, who succeeded Ramahlapi in the post, allegedly received R2.5 million and R2.2 million from the corrupt tenders.
Both cops are facing fraud and corruption charges in the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court, sitting in Palm Ridge, for allegedly facilitating “unlawful” personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts for companies belonging to the Chettys.
According to the charge sheet, about R2 million to supply Covid-19-related PPE was given to Siyanqoba Trading and Projects, which, in turn, allegedly transferred R270 000 to law firm Muthray and Associates as alleged payments for the officers’ legal fees.
Siyanqoba, the charge sheet added, was listed on the national treasury’s central supplier database (CSD) as a company specialising in “construction activities, wholesale [and] repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles”.
“Siyanqoba was not registered as a supplier of PPE on the CSD. Siyanqoba was not a manufacturer of PPE or latex gloves and would have to source same from a manufacturer or a company that supplied latex gloves,” reads the charge sheet.
Muthray and Associates represented Mokwena and Ramanjalum in a separate R191 million graft case involving former national police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane.
Chetty crime family’s assets siezed by Eyaaz Matwadia
Seized assets
Kishene Chetty’s vehicle collection which was taken by the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) resembles a fast car dealership, with the younger Chetty owning a Ferrari F430, four different models of the BMW 3 Series signature range, as well as a Ford super duty bakkie as part of the nine-vehicle fleet seized from him.
His father, on the other hand, preferred a more antique collector’s item 11-vehicle fleet that included a 1979 Mercedes Benz two-door car still in mint condition and a 1988 Chevrolet Plymouth.
Kishene Chetty also had three homes in upmarket gated communities in Centurion restrained, these being in the Thatchfield Glen Estate, Cornwall Hill Estate, as well as Blue Valley Golf and Country Estate.
Krishna Chetty had 10 homes seized, one of which was in the same Blue Valley Golf and Country Estate as his son, as well as two properties on the banks of the Vaal Dam in Deneysville, Free State, and one alongside Hartbeespoort Dam in Schoemansville inNorth West.
Mokwena and Ramanjalum also had their properties restrained for allegedly receiving kickbacks.
Mokwena had his Woderboom, Gauteng, home attached, as well as five vehicles, including a 2021 Jeep Wrangler and a 2004 Jaguar S-Type.
Ramanjalum has temporarily surrendered his home in the Amberfield Ridge Estate in Centurion as well as two vehicles, including a 2019 BMW 3 Series.
Shawn Williams of GWC Administrators was appointed as the curator by the Pretoria high court to “take care of [the seized property] and to administer it, whether such property is situated inside or outside the Republic”.
“The curator will further be entitled to deal with any funds in any banking accounts forming part of the property and is accordingly authorised to hold the necessary signing powers on such accounts and to give directions to banking institutions, and other persons in control of any of those funds regarding the utilisation of such funds,” reads the court order.
“These powers of the curator extend to all the property wherever it may be situated in the world. This order will thus operate as a power of attorney for the curator to deal with all the property as if he himself were the owner or the holder thereof.”
The Investigating Directorate said in a statement that the Pretoria high court, in granting the attachment order, found the Chettys “to have acted collusively in making false and fraudulent misrepresentations in their tender bid to the police”.
This included the use of white women — Lorette Joubert and her daughter Maricha Joubert — who allegedly misrepresented that they were black women in order to benefit from empowerment legislation and benefit from state contracts. Both mother and daughter are also accused persons in the R59 million police vehicle branding case.
In the aftermath of the 2008/09 global recession, the world changed. The near economic collapse that was especially acute in the Western financial capitals as a US subprime mortgage crisis led many to ask questions about the future of capitalism. Even the capitalist bible in the Economist magazine has posed many questions about the global economy in the wake of its near collapse just 15 years ago.
Many of the world’s leading nations began focussing on the shape of their domestic economies and their politics. It has given rise to nationalism in Europe and an anti-immigration sentiment that has spread like a wildfire. Its sentiment that has drawn bridges in Britain as the country has exited the European Union and across the Atlantic, fueled Donald Trump’s race driven pledge to “Make America Great Again”.
Here, after the end of administration of Thabo Mbeki in 2008, we’ve basically drowned in the factional battles of the ANC under both Jacob Zuma and the incumbent. An important portfolio such as foreign affairs was once led by Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, need I say more. The pandemic has only deepened this inward focus, as once again economies struggled to adapt to the structural changes it has brought to bear on our daily lives.
And then Russia invades Ukraine, after initially making a more acceptable incursion nine years ago when it took over Crimea.
This has shaken up the global order and has brought geopolitics to the centre of all discussion across the globe. China has taken a very different posture to Western ally on its border, Taiwan, with expectations of an incursion at any moment. Geopolitics matter again and we’ve been drawn into the centre of this storm and we look woefully unprepared. In a digital world dominated by the dark arts of misinformation, we look like a deer stuck in the headlights.
Petulant is the only manner in which I can describe Defence Minister, Thandi Modise’s response to allegations we are supplying ammunition to Russia in a war that we are non-aligned.
“I’m tired because every time we have to be told about the US. Everybody now sees the spook called South Africa. I can tell you that categorically, we did not send fokol, not even a piece of Chappies [bubblegum] to Russia. We should be left alone.”
Is that how a Minister should respond to allegations that we are fuelling Europe’s first major war since the end of World War 2. We are slap bang in the middle of a battle between two of the traditional global superpowers in the US and Russia and not appreciating the precarious position we are in. This is not an ANC NEC debate over a weekend at the St George Hotel in Centurion.
We sound woefully unprepared for the storm ahead.
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