Reality TV star and Luxury influencer Tshegofatso Manche and her clothing company LA Manche have been hauled to the North Gauteng High Court by a local bank over their failure to repay a R100 000 overdraft. ZiMoja can reveal that the celebrated fashion designer now stands to lose one of her precious assets as she had signed surety to the agreement as the owner of her company, LA Manche. However, in retaliation, the Mommy Club star has filed a notice to defend the court action stating that the bank was abusing the court process arguing that the bank should have filed its papers at the Magistrates Court in Klerksdorp, North-West. 

REFUSING TO PAY THE DEBT

This, she said was because at the time she entered into an agreement with the bank, she was residing in North-West, and so was the address of the company. According to court papers filed by the bank’s lawyers, LA Manche signed an agreement on 24 June 2014, represented by its Director Tshegofatso Manche, to secure a business credit facility with the bank. Part of the agreement was that LA Manche would be notified of the balance in the account, and account statements would be sent to her to inform her about pending payments and when they were due to service the account. However, in their papers, the banks state that LA Manche has failed and or refused to make payments towards the overdraft facility despite being informed of the need to do so. As a result, the bank said it was now demanding that LA Manche pay an amount of R101 057.16 together with 24% interest per year from 7 August 2017 to the date of payment. The court documents show that LA Manche would be expected to fork out at least close to R250,000 when interests are considered. For the year 2017, according to the bank’s demands, LA Manche would have to part ways with at least R25 000 just in interest alone, and with interest to be charged at 24% for at least eight years, the amount to be paid would skyrocket to a quarter of a million Rand, that’s if the Judge rules in favour of the bank, because Manche according to court papers filed in defend of the court action, illustrating that she won’t go down without fight. 

NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT

According to LA Manche’s plea filed by the company’s lawyers, Jan Ellis Attorneys, the fashion designer said she doesn’t recognise the agreement which was referenced by the bank arguing that no binding agreement was entered into between her and the bank. In the papers, LA Manche said though she does dispute that indeed the overdraft facility was utilised by her, there was no agreement in place as to when the business credit facility was repayable, and she also argued that the monthly repayments were also not specified and confirmed. In the papers, LA Manche said they were never provided with a pre-quotation of the agreement before signing it. "The failure to enter into a pre-quotation agreement constitutes a violation of the National Credit Act," reads LA Manche’s response. LA Manche also filed a counterclaim against the bank demanding that the court must render the purported agreement she signed to be nullified and forfeited. 

The company, through their lawyers, said the court must dismiss the bank application and instead order that their client Manche, and her company be paid back the monies paid towards the overdraft facility together with interests from the date on which the facility was acquired.