Firm probed shut

Business placed in provisional liquidation last week.

- Ciaran Ryan

NTC Global Trade was placed in provisional liquidation last week by Judge Sulet Potterill of the High Court in Pretoria, just days after Kurt Knoop resigned as business rescue practitioner (BRP) of the firm, citing death threats.

The court ruling also came shortly after Knoop's colleague and attorney, Bouwer van Niekerk, was gunned down by assassins in the boardroom of his SmitSew law office in Saxonwold, Johannesburg. Four suspects are being sought after they fled the scene in a GWM vehicle.

Knoop resigned just hours after his colleague was shot dead.

The case, heard in camera (in private) and ex parte (with only one party presenting evidence) before Potterill, issued the provisional liquidation order.

This removes NTC from the business rescue process it voluntarily entered in March 2024. Interested parties have until 6 November, to show why it should not be placed into final liquidation.