Former Generations actress and businesswoman Sophie Ndaba is facing another court battle by Mercantile Bank over her repossessed house worth R2.5 million.Ndaba lost her Featherbrook Estate house in 2020 after she failed to keep up with payments over her R2.2 million loan she obtained after mortgaging her property. Ndaba had used the house together with her company Sophla Trading as security in her agreement with the bank.

TAKING A KNOCK

The well known and celebrated wedding planner used to make a lot of money through her company Sophla Trading at the height of her blossoming acting career at Generation's.  But her career took a knock when she left the SABC soapie and her business also took a dive, leaving her unable to service most her debt, including the one with Mercantile bank. Ndaba, according to court papers seen by Zimoja, had failed to pay a monthly instalment of R22 000 from May 2018 until January 2019, in breach of the agreement she had entered into with the bank.

NEGOTIATING WITH BANK'S LAWYERS

The court papers show that she tried to negotiate with the bank's lawyers hoping to save the house, but despite the negotiations going into more than eight months, nothing came of them, and the bank was later forced to obtain a deed of sale from the actress to put it on the market.                                                                                    At the time of negotiations, the house was valued at R2.5 million, and the bank, in motivation for an execution order, had argued that Ndaba was not using the property as her residential home, but was renting it out to a tenant.                                                                                                                                                                                    

RECOVERING OUTSTANDING BALANCE

The house, the papers show, was sold but could only fetch an amount which was less than the R2.2 million owed to the bank by Ndaba. This time, Zimoja can reveal that the same bank which successfully attached and sold her house to recoup the R2. 2 million loan, has now filed a R1 million lawsuit against Ndaba to recover the outstanding balance on her mortgage account. In the papers filed at South Gauteng High Court in July this year, the bank was also demanding a payment of R69 000 from Ndaba, which are the arrears accumulated in her account from June this year.

FALLEN ON DEAF EARS

The bank said it tried several times to reach out to Ndaba to inform her about the outstanding balance, but said their communication appears to have either ignored and or neglected for consideration. Sophie Ndaba's financial fortunes appeared to be taking positive turn after she landed few gigs, some on SABC and others on Mzansi Magic, but it's not clear what went wrong. The actress was also married to flamboyant businessman Max Lichaba, who was believed to be a multi millionaire. The two co owned a popular hangout in Soweto called KwaLichaba Shisanyama but their marriage didn't last, as they both went their separate ways years later. Last week Zimoja reported that Sophie's friends were furious after her ex-husband allegedly made off with R1,2 Sophie had invested in KwaLichaba to renovate and improve the place, only for Max to apparently later put her depression in their relationship