Lanzerac Wine Estate has gone to court to fight the South African Reserve Bank’s decision to forfeit its R220 million Stellenbosch property.

The estate is challenging the use of exchange control regulations and raising constitutional questions about whether the law allows assets to be blocked or forfeited without proper limits.

The case also pulls the Steinhoff scandal back into focus, showing that the legal fallout linked to Markus Jooste is still far from over.

Lanzerac launches court fight over R220 million property

Lanzerac Wine Estate has gone to court to challenge the South African Reserve Bank’s decision to forfeit the Stellenbosch property worth R220 million. The estate, once linked to the late former Steinhoff chief executive Markus Jooste, is now contesting the forfeiture under exchange control regulations.

The dispute centres on the luxury wine estate previously owned by Jooste’s company, formerly Morpheus Property Investments, before it was sold to billionaire Christo Wiese. The Reserve Bank relied on exchange control rules to order the forfeiture, setting up a legal fight with potentially wider implications beyond the estate itself.

Constitutional challenge targets exchange control rules

Court papers filed in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg show that the estate is not only resisting the forfeiture itself. It is also raising constitutional questions about section 22D of the Exchange Control Regulations of 1961, which were issued under the Currency and Exchanges Act of 1933.

The challenge goes even further. According to the papers, the estate is also attacking the legality of Regulation 22C(2)(b), arguing that it allows authorities to block, attach and interdict assets without the time limits contemplated in the governing law. The estate says this may breach the doctrine of legality under the Constitution.

That makes this more than a property dispute. The case could test how far regulators can go when using old exchange control provisions to freeze or forfeit assets.

The legal battle also revives the long shadow of the Steinhoff collapse. Jooste was the chief executive of the retail giant during its rise into one of the world’s biggest furniture and home goods groups. At its peak, Steinhoff had around 130,000 employees, roughly 12,000 retail outlets and operations in 30 countries.

But the group’s downfall triggered investigations that later uncovered what the article describes as damning evidence of Jooste’s complicity in the collapse. The matter was reported to the Hawks under anti-corruption laws, and at the time of Jooste’s death in March 2024, the case was still with investigators for possible prosecution.

Case could shape more than one estate

For Lanzerac, the immediate issue is whether the forfeiture stands. But the court fight may also shape how exchange control law is applied in future high-value asset cases.

For South Africans still watching the fallout from Steinhoff, the case is another reminder that the aftershocks have not ended. Years later, the legal and financial battles linked to Jooste’s empire are still unfolding and still reaching into some of the country’s most valuable assets.