Zimbali lodge / Fairmont hotel loophole

Zimbali lodge / Fairmont Zimbali hotel / Zimbali estate loophole

Zimbali Lodge was our dream wedding venue! We went there and met with the wedding planners and we loved everything about it. We then signed the contracts and paid R25 000 as a deposit.

Then Covid hit and we were told that Zimbali went under business rescue. We understood why and how this happened (as we also suffered major financial losses), and we just hoped that all would be sorted out before our wedding date. All we wanted was to keep the date at the venue.

After a few months we were told that our date was cancelled, and our money was tied up in the Zimbali fairmont hotel Business Rescue process and we had to wait it out. (But we booked at Zimbali lodge, not the hotel) . The date for a final decision on all debts was initially December 2020, then moved to Jan 2021 , now it is a March 2021.

What really is confusing for me is that they are still trading, they still having weddings and still advertising for people to have their weddings at Zimbali lodge!!

Why was our date cancelled if they still having weddings? Why do they still have our deposit if they still trading and making money??

Please can someone assist and let me know what we can do!! They don’t even reply to us when we ask... they refer us to their website which has no information on WHEN we will get our money back. But again, they still having weddings at the venue!! Now they have split the 3 entities , the lodge and the hotel and estate are completely split. I booked with the lodge, even though I had to sign with the hotel that is now under business rescue... the email letter heads are for the estate , but no one can help us. Yet they lodge is still advertising for weddings but our date is cancelled due to the signing being with the hotel (which was out of our control)