[imagesource: Instagram]

The saga of Candice van der Merwe (or Candice-Jean, as she is sometimes referred to) has been playing out in the public eye for years.

If you need to get up to speed with van der Merwe, the $15,5 million gift she received from the prime minister of Lebanon in 2013, and how that money was spent, pop in here.

Also central to the story is her father, Gary, a businessman, and the “Zonnekus” beach home he had occupied for almost 20 years, located on Milnerton’s Woodbridge Island.

TimesLIVE reports that last week, the so-called “battle for Zonnekus” finally wrapped up in an auction, with the decade-long legal spat having ended up in the Constitutional Court:

The mansion, commissioned in 1929, once attracted values of up to R100m. On Thursday it attracted a highest bid of only R15.5m.

The auction marks the end of an era for businessman Gary van der Merwe and his model daughter, Candice, who were central to the tug-of-war over the property.

They and their legal representatives made hundreds of court appearances in a fight with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) over a $15.5m (about R140m in 2012) payment to Candice – allegedly a gift from her “admirer”, former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.

Along with the cash gift, van der Merwe was also given an Audi R8 Spyder, two new cellphones, and a Land Rover Evoque.

She used some of that cash to buy a house in Fresnaye and made a hefty loan to a real estate company her father was involved with.

The gift from Hariri was investigated by SARS, who then said the van der Merwes owed them a sizeable tax bill, leading to a challenge from the father-daughter duo:

The Van der Merwes began several court applications against the liquidators of Gary van der Merwe’s assets, which are held by Zonnekus Mansion (Pty) Ltd.

On February 5, the Constitutional Court dismissed Van der Merwe’s attempt to challenge a high court order evicting him from Zonnekus…

This paved the way for this week’s sale by WH Auctioneers, with the winning bid now under consideration by liquidators Sanek Trust Recovery Services.

The seven-bedroom, five-reception room mansion is well-known for being a Sir Herbert Baker-designed home, and was once occupied by the British high commissioner, according to the auctioneers.

Seems like R15,5 million is a bargain, then, although Gary is still not done fighting.

He insists that the auction was illegal:

“I have a claim against the property … and it is an illegal sale with the liquidators and SARS colluding,” Van der Merwe told the Sunday Times by e-mail.

Moodliar said any claim against the Zonnekus sale “is no bar to the realisation of assets, which the liquidators are, by law, obliged to do”.

Seems like a stressful time for the family, although judging by Candice’s latest Instagram posts, she doesn’t seem all that bothered:

Live, laugh, love, and suntan.

You can read the full TimesLIVE article here.

To finish, Gary seems to have left this reply in the comments section of the TimesLIVE story, which we will include in full:

[source:timeslive]