A week after going on record saying that clients and agents would be refunded for the outstanding money owed them for repatriation flight arrangements, Guardian Assist has announced its intention to liquidate ‘Guardian Assist Repatriation Flights’.
“After an extensive audit, further investigation and deliberation has brought our team to the conclusion that, due to the losses and fraud experienced in our attempts to arrange and manage repatriation flights, we have no alternative but to shut down Guardian Assist Repatriation Flights and to cease trading. Once a liquidator has been appointed by the magistrate, we will share their information with you to register your claim. We regret that we have no alternative, and even more that our efforts to make a positive difference in people’s lives have turned out as a disaster for a few, and for this we apologise,” said JP van Tonder, in an email sent out to trade partners this week. Travel News understands that JP is the owner of Guardian Assist.
Head of flights for FCTG, Tash Webb, said while Guardian Assist had paid FCTG for the agent referral fees owed to them, their clients’ refunds were still outstanding.
“Guardian Assist has notified us of its intention to liquidate its repatriation flight business but says that, despite this, it will commit to refunding our clients from its medical solutions business during the course of next month,” said Tash.
Owner of JMC Travel, Jenny Kutlu, who is owed R16 000 in referral fees, said JP made no arrangement to pay outstanding funds to her and only notified her that she could register a claim once a liquidator was appointed. Jenny did not charge her clients a service fee, as she was expecting to receive referral fees from Guardian Assist, and is frustrated to have been strung along for months.
Linda Wattrus, owner manager of XL HalloWorld Travel, has not yet received a response from Guardian Assist relating to her referral fee chasers or notification of the company’s intention to liquidate its repatriation flight business.
“Neither Guardian Assist or #LISA, who partnered with them for the Christchurch flight, are even registered travel companies, but people happily handed over hundreds of thousands of rands to them. Where are both of these groups now and can they even be held accountable for these losses? This incident should be a lesson to the public that your money is always safest when you do business with reputable travel brands that are members of a professional association,” said Linda.
Is Guardian Assist Repatriation Flights a separate company?
A search on the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) website lists only Guardian Assist Medical Solutions as a registered company. No reference to a separate ‘Guardian Assist Repatriation Flight’ company could be found. JP van Tonder was also not listed as a director, with one Kelly Antoinette listed as the company’s current owner. Agents who knew the couple personally said Kelly was JP’s wife.
Travel News contacted Guardian Assist to understand how the repatriation flight business could be liquidated when it was not listed on CIPC as a separate company. We also attempted to contact Kelly Antoinette and to establish what JP van Tonder’s actual role in the business was, but Travel News had not received a response at time of publication.
#LISA responds
Last month, founder of #LISA group, Beverley Schäfer spoke (in a statement to Travel News) about the various charter flights that the group had been “instrumental in setting up”.
“A historic charter flight took place to Christchurch, New Zealand. The success of this charter emerged from the forged partnership between #LISA, All About Travel, Guardian Assist and South African Airways. The planning of this charter rekindled the hope of many citizens who were stranded either in South Africa or in New Zealand, and through the dedication of this team, they were returned to their loved ones and livelihoods.”
However, this month, asked if clients and agents left out of pocket by Guardian Assist had any recourse to claim funds back from the #LISA group for the Christchurch flight, Beverley had this to say. “This flight was not organised by #LISA. Flights like this and any other were organised by a travel agency it seems, and promoted like all other charter flights by #LISA volunteers. This was not a #LISA charter.
“It must be said, however, that, as there were never enough organised commercial flight companies that put flights together for repatriation, charters organised by travel agents or private individuals always posed a risk. But I believe that 99% of people involved in repatriation flights did so successfully, for the right reason and took risks themselves just to get South Africans home. The flight company itself needs to be fully investigated and held accountable, as we had a few other charter organised flights that went belly up over the past six months. It’s really a tragedy for those that lose money they can ill afford to lose, to be placed in such a position. I have no knowledge about who the owners are at all,” said Beverley.
All About Travel responds
Owner of All About Travel, Elzanne Richter, said she was horrified to hear that Guardian Assist was liquidating its repatriation flight business. She found out after receiving an influx of calls from agents and clients whom JP had notified about the liquidation.
“Guardian Assist still owes us R280 000 for repatriation flight arrangements and we have been contacted by clients and agents alleging that at least another R300 000 in client refunds is still outstanding. I have been chasing JP for money for over a month and he didn’t even have the decency to notify me of his decision to liquidate. He has blocked me on Facebook and WhatsApp and is refusing to take my calls,” said Elzanne.
She confirmed that all client refunds owed to agents by All About Travel had been paid within 10 days of the completion of the repatriation flight.
“The transactions that the clients and agents are querying relate to bookings that were invoiced and paid directly to Guardian Assist. They do not relate to any All About Travel bookings. It is heartbreaking that our honesty and integrity, after a 22-year career in the industry, is being drawn into question through all of this,” said Elzanne.