A Newcastle law firm is going after the former Deputy Mayor of Newcastle Local Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal after he failed to pay an overdue legal bill of R311,723.16.
Hanlie Fourie Attorneys claims that Musa Shukela Thwala, the leader of Team Sugar South Africa, is in breach of his contract and wants him to pay up.
The law firm represented Thwala when he was ousted from his position last year following a fallout with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) which leads the coalition in Newcastle. Thwala’s party had a few seats in the municipality and in return for his support, he was appointed deputy mayor after the deadlocked November 2021 local government elections.
“We refer to the above mentioned matter and confirm that we act on your behalf in the matter of Team Sugar SA & Others // Newcastle Local Municipality & Others (Case No.: 10270/2024P.
“We confirm that on or about 4 April 2024, which was confirmed on 15 June 2024, you entered into an agreement with Ms. Fourie from Hanlie Fourie Attorneys to act as your attorney of record in respect of the said application proceedings.
“We furthermore confirm that we rendered certain statements of accounts to you for the rendering of services in relation to the above mentioned matter, which we now render again,” reads the letter to Thwala dated 19 March 2025.
The law firm threatened Thwala with legal action if he fails to settle the bill.
“We confirm that an amount of R311,723.16 remains outstanding and is currently due and payable…We therefore demand from you, as we hereby do, payment of the amount of R311,723.16 within 5 days of dispatch of this letter… Failure to make payment as stated above will result in further legal action being taken against you without notice. Our rights remain strictly reserved,” the law firm further wrote to Thwala.
Thwala denied that he owes the law firm, claiming that the bill is incorrect.
“I’m not running away from them, I have responded to them that the bill they are sending me is not alright and furthermore I did pay some money in advance and it doesn’t appear anywhere.”
“Since I’m not working now I even sent them a response that the agreement was that they must recover monies for the court cases that we won and they never told me whether they received money or not.”
“They must claim money as they promise and tell me what is due to them,” Thwala told African when he was asked about the matter.
