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Embattled diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg's company Tariomix is to be liquidated. This follows a ruling on Friday by the Mahikeng High Court in North West that a provisional liquidation order issued in February last year be made final. This means Tariomix has been placed under final winding-up.

Tariomix, which finances the buying and selling of diamonds, is better known by its trading name, Forever Diamonds and Gold. It was placed into provisional liquidation in February as the result of an urgent application brought by Ruan Botes en Jeandré Viljoen, two investors who say they never got their promised payouts.

While Liebenberg and Tariomix had denied the company was unable to pay its debts or had acted illegally, lawyers accused it of being an insolvent Ponzi scheme.

In his judgment on Friday, Acting Judge Mark Morgan also granted intervention applications by 11 more intervening applicants.

Morgan said whether or not Tariomix was a Ponzi scheme had no bearing on the judgment. "I am of the view that those alleged facts are not relevant to determining the crucial issues before me in this liquidation application."

According to Netwerk24, the judgment of Friday affects as many as 80 000 people and involves around R1 billion.

Meanwhile, News24 reported on Friday that Liebenberg was running for Parliament as an independent candidate.

Liebenberg has also in the past contributed millions to former president Jacob Zuma's legal fees.

Last year, a report by Tariomix's provisional liquidators found that Liebenberg directed that R3.2 million be paid to advocates and attorneys on Zuma's legal team. The funds were then used in his private prosecution bid against News24 legal journalist Karyn Maughan and senior state advocate Billy Downer.

Liebenberg's attorney, Walter Niedinger, previously told News24 that his client established a "friendly relationship" with the former president in April of 2022 when he travelled to Nkandla to chew the fat over the plight of the Afrikaners.

Previous reporting by Jan Cronje.

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