DANMAR CEO HOWARD BLOOMBERG : Said to have lived it up on the company credit card to the tune of R18.5 million
Former President Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe MandelaAmuah owns a 26% stake in the company. CEO Howard Bloomberg owns 54%, and Colin Yach, a chartered accountant who worked for Blue Label Telecoms before joining Danmar, owns the remaining 20%.
Bloomberg and Yach have been accused of having used Mandela as a “BEE front”.
Danmar Autobody was for several decades recognised as the panel beating business on the Reef favored by the likes of Mercedes Benz and various major vehicle insurers.
From March 2019 to January 2020, Bloomberg drew R700,500 in cash from the Danmar bank account at ATMs at local casinos
Danmar’s downward spiral appeared to have started in 2017 when Bloomberg, Mandela-Amuah and Yach bought the business – and some branches gained from Imperial Holdings – for R20m, according to the business rescue practitioners who took control of the company in February this year.
Danmar’s employees have been left without an income since December, and its many creditors are seriously out of pocket.
Soon after it went into business rescue (on 24 January), its major client Mercedes Benz and various insurers cut ties with the company. Founded in 1989, Danmar had four branches in Gauteng and one in Cape Town and employed over 200 people.
This story is from the September 2020 edition of Noseweek.
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This story is from the September 2020 edition of Noseweek.
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