A R28m jewellery heist in 2023 that stripped several Arthur Kaplan Jewellers (AKJ) stores of gold, diamonds and luxury watches appeared to be a slick inside job. But in the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes court this week, the defence flipped the script.
The four accused, it was argued, were not criminals but pawns — and the complainant was merely the face of a much darker operation motivated by bad blood going back 22 years.
The accused — former AKJ director Hoosein Mohamed and his former employees Azhar Ismail, Ridwaan Mansoor and Ammaarah Ismail — allegedly looted the stores in 2023 after the company went into liquidation. CCTV footage shows the haul being loaded into shopping trolleys and backpacks. The goods have not been recovered, and the four have been charged with theft.
On the stand for the state this week was liquidator Laila Motala, who was flanked by two burly close-protection officers in black suits and wraparound sunglasses. When was asked by the Sunday Times why she required bodyguards, she said her phone had been hacked and she did not feel safe.
Former Arthur Kaplan director Hoosein Mohamed. (Supplied)
Motala is the daughter of Enver Motala, a liquidator disbarred after his role in the controversial 2009 collapse of gold mines owned by the Pamodzi Group. Her evidence in chief was challenged under cross-examination. The legal team for the defence:
questioned how Motala came to be appointed as liquidator “in hours” when the process generally took a week; accused her of working with creditors and her father’s former colleagues linked to the Pamodzi scandal; questioned her appointment of her father as her consultant; and claimed she had been motivated because “22 years ago your father was sued for R9.2m in damages by Arthur Kaplan” when he was working on a liquidation matter involving the company.
“It was your father who was running the show. You were a front. You were never in control of the business,” defence advocate Mohammed Yusuf Razak told her.
Motala objected. According to her testimony, she first learnt of AKJ’s financial distress after Durban businesswoman Veruschka Juggernauth applied for the company to be liquidated, claiming it owed her R1.9m.
Motala was appointed provisional joint liquidator on December 22 2022, alongside Gladys Ngobeni. She then appointed her father and administrator Michelle Sutherland — who worked for both her and her father’s firm — as consultants.
She arranged for Mohamed and his co-director, Althea Cloete, to continue running the business while it traded in liquidation.
Motala testified that when she asked for payment, Mohamed told her the business had no funds, prompting her to apply to court for permission to raid the homes of Mohamed and his personal assistant, Ammaarah Ismail. But the raid failed to recover anything.
Liquidator Laila Motala (Supplied)
Soon afterwards, surveillance footage showed Ismail and other staff members entering the AKJ head office and three stores — World’s Finest Watches in Sandton’s Nelson Mandela Square, Diamond Walk and Eastgate — over a two-day period. They are seen removing from the shelves and packing away watches and jewellery, allegedly on Ismail’s instructions, which the state says came from Mohamed.
AKJ staff members have already testified that they were called in after hours on May 31 and June 1 2023 and instructed to pack up goods and hand them over — allegedly to Mohamed.
Motala reported the matter to the Hawks. Ismail fled and remained at large for months, before being arrested and denied bail as a flight risk. She remains in custody.
However, the defence is now intent on dismantling what it calls the “orchestrated heist” narrative.
“It was indeed a well-orchestrated operation,” defence advocate Muhammed Vally told the court, “but it was planned and executed on behalf of Enver Motala, Faizel and Solly Bhana” and various creditors.
Father and son Faizel and Solly Bhana worked alongside Enver Motala and were were previously identified as key drivers in the collapse of two gold mines owned by the Pamodzi Group during a 2009 sale to BEE company Aurora Empowerment Systems (AES). AES included former president Jacob Zuma’s son Khulubuse Zuma and Zuma’s long-time lawyer Michael Hulley.
They were accused of stripping the mines of their assets while workers were not being paid.
One of AKJ’s creditors, Preggy Padayachee, was also implicated in the Pamodzi scandal.
CCTV footage of Ammaarah Ismail and an accomplice allegedly stealing jewellery from Arthur Kaplan Jewellers. (CCTV)
The defence claims the removal of the jewels was done to prevent an intended heist planned by Enver, the Bhanas and others.
Vally went on to interrogate Motala’s appointment, pointing out she had applied for an extension of her powers a day before being appointed provisional liquidator, and that a process that ordinarily takes up to seven days was completed within hours.
Motala responded that urgency was required. Arthur Kaplan was a 50-year-old legacy business, it was December — the peak retail season — and “about 50 jobs” were at stake. She also claimed to be in discussions with an interested buyer.
Vally countered her explanation, arguing that by failing to secure the valuable stock immediately and allowing the same directors accused of overseeing the company’s collapse to continue operating the business, Motala may have acted contrary to the Insolvency Act.
“There was already a collective formed to appoint you,” Vally said, referring to creditors who supported Juggernauth’s liquidation application.
“You managed to get your appointment essentially in negative time — a day after you applied for your extension of powers,” he added. “You are describing a level of efficiency from a government department that is completely opposite to the experience of ordinary South Africans.”
Enver Motala (Russell Roberts/Financial Mail)
Questioning Motala on the appointment of her father as her consultant, he held up a Business Report article and said, “Isn’t it true that 22 years ago your father was sued for R9.2m in damages by Arthur Kaplan?”
“I am not aware of Enver Motala being sued,” Motala replied. “But I do know that he was involved when Arthur Kaplan [Jewellers] was sold out of the Retail Apparel Group [RAG]. I appointed him because of his experience.”
Vally responded by saying, “This debacle was a pre-planned operation designed and spearheaded by Enver Motala. I am presenting this as evidence of motive.”
The Business Report article stated that AKJ was claiming R9.2m from RAG, the body of liquidators and lead liquidator Enver Motala after a R25m deal was put in jeopardy when he questioned the true ownership of AKJ. It is unclear what the outcome of the litigation was.
Vally then turned to Motala’s membership of industry body the Association for Black Business Rescue and Insolvency Practitioners (Abripsa), establishing that its code of conduct mirrored that of the South African Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners. Enver Motala, it emerged, is Abripsa’s chair.
Vally pointed out that one of the provisions of the body prohibits liquidators from employing individuals convicted of theft, suspended, refused registration, or declared unfit by a court.
“Enver Motala doesn’t comply, yet you employed him in breach of your own code,” Vally said. “The proposition we are putting to you is that you were never in charge of this liquidation. It was Enver Motala.”
Motala disagreed and said she stood by every decision she made.
Her cross-examination will continue in April.