A company that rented a ship to Dineo Ranaka for a celebrity voyage to the Portuguese islands last year is taking her to court for vanishing with its money.
The company, MSC Cruises SA, based in Geneva, Switzerland, has issued a “provincial sentence summons” for Ranaka and a Gauteng businessman, Denzel Govender, and his company, Smilz, to appear in the Joburg high court for not paying it more than R3.4-million.
This is the remaining balance of the over R7.5-million that the company charged the former Kaya FM host and her partner for the trip, which many celebrities slammed as the worst cruise of their lives.
Smilz, Govender and Ranaka are the first, second and third defendants respectively.
According to the court documents that we have obtained, MSC said that Smilz and Ranaka signed a charted party agreement on or around September 5 2022, in which they agreed to rent a ship, the MSC Orchestra, for over R7.5-million last year. MSC said it agreed to rent the ship to Smilz and Ranaka on the condition that they would pay the huge amount in two equal instalments on December 15 and 22 last year, before the notorious cruise that happened in February this year.
The company said Smilz and Ranaka agreed that if they failed or neglected to pay the amount due on any of the due dates, the remaining balance would become immediately due and payable.
MSC said Smilz and Ranaka did not pay the full amount as per the agreement. The company said Smilz and Ranaka signed a written acknowledgement of debt in which they admitted that they owed it money.
The company said Smilz and Ranaka made 19 payments totalling over R4.1-million between December 2 last year and May 2 this year.
The company said the outstanding amount of over R3.4-million has not been paid by Smilz and Ranaka despite its repeated demands.
MSC said as a result of Smilz and Ranaka’s failure to pay the debt, Govender signed a deed of surety in which he agreed to be jointly liable for the debt.
However, MSC said, the debt was still not paid even after Govender’s guarantee. MSC wants them to come to court either personally or through their lawyers if they do not pay the debt.