Rumours of the split started last week but the two, who went into business together in 2008 after meeting on the set of the reality show Strictly Come Dancing, denied it at the time.
The latest rumour to come out of the fashion industry is that Mbuli's arch enemy - Khanyi Mbau - has said she wants to buy Coetzee's half of the business.
Reports surfaced on gossip blogs last week that the two parted ways just months after opening a store under the label at The Zone centre in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
Coetzee told The Times yesterday, 8 February 2010, that he wanted to sell his shares in the business because it was time for him to "move on".
But although Mbuli refused to comment yesterday, she ranted on social networking website Twitter that Coetzee has no shares to sell.
She tweeted on the Diamond Face Couture Twitter page: "Gert's shares are only worth his designing contribution, and unless he is selling his designing talent, he really has nothing else to sell.
"The intellectual property, store ownership [to which he currently has no access] and overall control of the bank accounts and business are assigned elsewhere.
"Hence he is making a lot of noise on blogs and with people who have little knowledge of DFC Pty Ltd," Mbuli wrote.
Mbau weighed in on her arch rival: "I am interested in fashion, if Coetzee agrees to sell me his shares, I have to see that they are worth something, business is business regardless [of] who the other shareholder is."
And, if she gets what she wants, the world of local fashion is set to become a lot more interesting.
"If the other shareholder is not happy with me, she might as well sell her shares to me too," Mbau said.
Coetzee said he had started his own design label "on the side". He denied any conflict with Mbuli, claiming his lawyers sent her a letter offering her the first bite at his shares, worth R500000.
When The Times told Coetzee what Mbuli had said, he said: "Clearly she is not interested [in my shares], now that I hear what she is saying."
Source: The Times
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