An Ermelo businessman has returned to the High Court in Pretoria to get back a fuel distribution business he claims was "hijacked" from him more than a year ago.

Henk Celliers asked the court on Tuesday for an eviction order against business rival Percy Masinga, and an order enabling the sale in execution of Masinga's shares in Ufundu Transport.

Celliers, the main shareholder in Mooipan Boerdery, obtained an order in October last year for the jailing Masinga for 30 days for contempt of court. However, Masinga has evaded arrest.

No serious attempts to arrest Masinga

Now Celliers not only wants Masinga arrested, but also wants him sentenced to a further 60 days imprisonment for contempt of court.

Celliers claimed Ermelo police had made no serious attempts to arrest Masinga, who was by his own account an influential businessman with contacts in the government and the security forces.

Even a previous court order, forcing the police to assist Celliers, appeared to have had no effect.

Celliers obtained a series of court orders against Masinga after he allegedly forcibly evicted Celliers, in February last year, from premises he was renting from Ufundu.

Masinga began operating Celliers' fuel distributing depot for his own account, using Celliers' equipment.

Four sales-in-execution

Celliers has, to date, arranged four sales-in-execution to execute the many orders obtained against Masinga.

He said that despite these court orders, Masinga in September again evicted his business with force from the premises and took over the business for his own account.

According to Celliers, the sheriff in Ermelo refused to enforce any court order against Masinga.

As a result, his business ? which once had a monthly turnover of about R7.5-million ? faced ruin.

Celliers himself was being threatened with death and arrest.

Masinga 'never went away'

Counsel for Celliers, Marius Helberg SC, told the court his client had since reached a settlement with the police.

The Ermelo police had agreed to assist in the execution of the court orders and to protect him and his employees.

The court wanted to know where Masinga was as he needed to explain why he was in contempt of court.

Counsel for Masinga, who opposed Celliers' latest application, said Masinga "was around" and "had never gone away", although he was not in court as he was "out on business".

Judgment will be delivered on Wednesday.