Hammerl’s ex demands cash payout
Slain lensman Anton Hammerl’s teen daughter is allegedly on the brink of being homeless, despite R2 million raised to support his children.
|||Cape Town - It’s a financial tug-of-war, and at the centre is the eldest child of Anton Hammerl, the photojournalist who died at the hands of troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi while covering the civil war in Libya in 2011.
Determined to provide financial support for his friend’s three children, fellow photojournalist James Foley - beheaded by Islamic State two years ago - mobilised a clique of international photographers to donate pictures for auction at Christies, New York. They raised nearly R2 million in 2012. But last week the 16-year-old, who lives in Johannesburg with her unemployed, single mother Leanne Manique, said her birthday came and went with nothing to celebrate.
The funds were expressly raised for the education of the teen and her two brothers, born from Hammerl’s subsequent marriage to Penny Sukhraj-Hammerl, who live in the UK. But his daughter says she’s on the brink of homelessness, and she cannot understand why her uncle Alex Hammerl and grandmother Freda Hammerl, two of three trustees, won’t release “some of the funds meant for my welfare”. The teen and her mother, who has been unemployed since 2012, face eviction from their home at the end of the month.
Manique’s story is that despite 11 requests for fund information and documentation made to Sukhraj-Hammerl and the three trustees, the third of whom is Bronwyn Friedlander, these “have been ignored or evaded”. “As the parent of a minor beneficiary, I have a right to this information and it is the fiduciary duty of trustees to provide it.”
Although requests for comment from the trustees were refused on the basis a minor was involved and further discussion with the media would be inappropriate, it is understood that in May the trustees paid the family’s rent and electricity costs, via the letting agent, to the end of this month.
Information supplied by other sources indicated there had been offers to pay for the teen to attend boarding school in South Africa, or to live with her grandmother in the UK. The trustees also indicated the funds were for the long-term well-being of the three children, and intended for their tertiary education.
Manique is having none of it, however.
She said that since 2011 her daughter had faced being evicted from her home and had to live on or below the breadline because they had little or no income, and received no maintenance for the teen.
The spat apparently deepened in March when, unable to supply basics such as food, shelter, clothing transport to get to school, uniforms, spectacles and medical care for her daughter, Manique wrote to the recently formed Hammerl Trust explaining their predicament. She said that, in return, Hammerl’s mother sent the teen a WhatsApp message saying “your mother wants to spend your money”.
The teen responded with an impassioned plea to her grandmother, saying: “The drama around the situation is damaging my mental state tremendously and only adding to the trauma of my father’s leaving and death.”
It was two months later that the trust transferred rent and electricity money to the family’s letting agent.
Although the funds were raised for the children’s tertiary education, legal advice is that the trustees have some discretion in terms of how and for what they are disbursed.
They are understood to have paid R100 000 to cover outstanding expenditure and to have committed to paying the teen’s school fees. But Manique apparently wants a further R150 000 immediately.
The teen has also said she has been forbidden contact with her two younger brothers since her father’s death.
Also in May, Manique said she received a redacted copy of the Trust Deed, a Letter of Wishes from Alex Hammerl and a letter to the trustees from UK firm Withers LLP dated April.
The latter warned the trustees to act honestly and responsibly, to consider making appointments from time to time, and to take relevant factors into account when making decisions.
“What you decide to do must have a rational basis in the circumstances,” the letter reads, adding: “The issue of who the settlor is and what their wishes are is unusual in this Settlement. Alex is the legal settlor, but only really of the initial £10 of the Settlement fund. The remaining funds in the Settlement are settled by those who donated to the fund and the question therefore is, what did they intend the funds to be used for?”
She also wants to know, however, why the funds raised remained with Friends of Anton’s fiscal sponsor, Reporters Without Borders, until January last year.
Reporters Without Borders’ Delphine Helgand said they deposited the funds into the trustees’ account at Quilter Cheviot in the UK in January last year.
She attached a letter from the trustees showing the account had been opened in 2014 by Alex Hammerl.
In 2014 Sukhraj-Hammerl said in an e-mail the initial formation of a trust had been delayed because of the abduction of Foley, and having to contend with tax laws in three countries.
Weekend Argus