Senior treasury official Dumebi Ubogu has been accused of trying to evict tenants from a Johannesburg flat that she owns by breaking down and removing the doors, and supergluing the locks of the security gates.
The official’s lawyer, Kevin Barnard, described the alleged raid as a “renovation”.
However, during a visit to the flat the M&G saw that superglue had been applied to the locks of the security gates to prevent them from being opened or closed.
Ubogu was allegedly assisted by her brother and two other people. The tenants, Jordanian petroleum consultant Khaled Ghannam and his wife, Leila, said that the group had carried knives, screwdrivers and hammers during the “renovation” operation, on January 7 this year.
Ghannam said that in an effort to secure the flat after the alleged raid, they had attached the security gates to the wall with adhesive tape.
He said that Ubogu, a senior economist in the economic policy department of the treasury, had not obtained an eviction order from court, as legally required.
Attorney Reynaud Daniels, of the law firm Cheadle Thompson Haysom, confirmed that according to the verbal month-to-month lease agreement, Ubogu should have given Ghannam until the end of January to move out.
“If she wanted him out at the end of December, it was illegal to give him 48 hours notice without a court order,” Daniel said.
Ubogu is the owner of the unit in Northcliff, where Ghannam and his wife have lived since September 2010. She refused to comment, referring the M&G to her lawyer.
The M&G has seen the emailed eviction notice sent to the Jordanian on December 30 last year, which orders them to vacate the apartment by December 31 2011.
The notice accused Ghannam of threatening to withhold rent “unless I reinstate a lapsed contract on your terms via an email you sent me on the 25th of December 2011. I have informed you that I am not interested in continuing a contract with you.”
Ghannam said that when he and his wife failed to move out of the apartment by the stipulated date, Ubogu arrived at the unit on January 7 this year with her three companions to forcibly evict them.
“They broke into our apartment through the security gate from the kitchen after breaking and removing the wooden kitchen door,” he said . “Then they removed the wooden door of the main entrance, and damaged the security locks of the kitchen and the main door, leaving us unprotected.
“During this process, my pregnant wife was pushed and she almost fell over. Ubogu and her gang even applied glue to where the doors were, making it impossible for us to replace them.” Leila Ghannam has since given birth.
He added that he had new doors installed at a cost of R17 000. He laid a complaint about the incident at the Ferndale police station, where it had been recorded in the occurrence book with the reference number OB33/01/2012.
Barnard described the allegations as nonsense, saying and that “everything was done formally” as part of a renovation.
Barnard initially claimed that Ubogu had opened a case against Ghannam, and said that as the matter was before court, he could not comment. When asked for the case number, he said that a court order for Ghannam’s eviction would only be issued this week.
Ubogu is a senior economist within the economic policy division of the national treasury. The treasury is responsible for managing South Africa’s national government finances and Ubogu’s division plays a central role in formulating and coordinating appropriate growth-enhancing policies that strengthen employment creation.
The key responsibility of the economic policy division is to provide policy advice on macroeconomic developments, international economic developments and microeconomic issues.
The division does this through policy analysis, scenario testing and the production of macroeconomic forecasts, in particular on growth, the external account and inflation. The forecasts inform economic policy, the fiscal framework, tax forecasts and debt management strategy.