Former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) CEO Lucky Montana wants to block the South African Revenue Service (Sars) from adding his wife, Sefora Devereaux Letsoalo, as a co-defendant in his multimillion-rand tax debt legal battle.
The revenue authority filed a joinder application last month at the high court in Pretoria to add Letsoalo as the second respondent in the tax lawsuit against Montana.
The tax debt was initially R44m but has accumulated to R55m.
Sars says it needs to join Letsoalo and cannot proceed with the court case for the attachment of Montana’s assets without the joinder.
Sars filed the application after Montana, in an answering affidavit that was 18 months late, argued procedural defects in the sequestration application because his wife was not joined in the application.
Sars legal debt collector Ilse Pires argues the revenue service is not to blame because the sequestration application was filed in May 2023. Montana married in November 2023 and disclosed the fact only in November 2025 in his answering affidavit.
“I point out that Mr Montana only got married, in community of property, to Mrs Letsoalo, after the sequestration application being launched. Sars accordingly now asks for the joint estate to be sequestrated,” Pires argues.
Pires contends that if Sars had been informed earlier of the marriage, Letsoalo would have been joined.
‘Direct and substantial interest’
“Sars accepts that the sequestration application cannot proceed without the joinder of Mrs Letsoalo.
“Letsoalo has direct and substantial interest in the proceedings and the outcome thereof given that she is married in community of property to Montana. As such, Mr Montana’s debts are those of the joint estate.”
Letsoalo has a house in Johannesburg and a car. Pires argues she does not have assets that may cause the joint estate not to be insolvent.
“The joint estate of Mr Montana and Mrs Letsoalo is insolvent and ought to be sequestrated.”
Sars, in its main application, wants Montana to be declared insolvent. This would limit his chances of being hired in public office.
Montana, who resigned in December as an MK party MP, filed court papers last week indicating his intention to oppose the joinder application. He has not yet filed an affidavit.
Montana cites in court papers that he is unemployed.
The sequestration court case is based on an audit of Montana’s tax affairs in 2009-19. The tax authority’s audit findings on Montana detail income and capital gains he did not declare in the 10 years.
Montana, however, raises objections to the audit findings based on several factors, including Sars’ characterisation and assessment methodology of various transactions — in particular the issue of property sales and the application of capital tax gains and the sale of motor vehicles.
“My calculations of these transactions indicated my tax liability was overstated by over R21m. It was on these bases that I disputed the amounts and I argued I did not owe Sars a cent,” he argues.
He contends his debt to Sars was about R9.35m.
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