The Gauteng government paid R70 million for a Midvaal farm that had been bought for less than a tenth of that price a few years prior, with a massive commission paid out. | amaBhungane
Magnificent MndebeleThe Gauteng government paid R70 million for a Midvaal farm that had been bought for less than a tenth of that price a few years prior.
The deal is currently under investigation by the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation and the Public Protector.Mampeule, who got his foot in the door of the property industry at international property group Chas Everitt and now owns a sprawling property empire, attempted to deal with queries on an off-record basis, citing the investigations.
Gregory was terminally ill at the time and died within a week of the R44 million commission apportionment to Landworth being signed. By this time Gregory's health had deteriorated dramatically and his daughter told amaBhungane she believed his pancreatic cancer was already affecting his cognitive abilities.
"That Monday in the morning, Christel kept pushing my dad that he needs to get his will redone … because Kelly will shut down the orphanage, etc. Said departmental spokesperson Sithembiso Mkhize:"The department received a request for information from the Office of the Public Protector and the department duly responded and submitted the required information. The Department has also been served with a Section 205 subpoena by the National Prosecuting Authority Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit to provide documents related to this matter.
The lawyer told amaBhungane,"I know that I did nothing wrong and my client did nothing wrong… From the questions you have sent to me I can see that you don't understand what's going on in that transaction." Leon Janse van Rensburg is a director of Vaalplan town planners, which he explained is involved in development throughout the country."Yes, yes. I can still recall very well, it was that period when there was a lot of demonstrations on the R59, if I can recall that village now, it's called 'Sicelo' township. There was a lot of people demonstrating because there was no land for them where they could live, and you'd not drive on the R59 on various occasions.
"If I sell land for R70 million, my finder-fee would not be around R2 million. It'd be much more… I don't know of R70 million really. I've never seen anything like that, and I don't know where you got that from. It is news to me.""I got the instruction to find the property from the director of Landworth.
The GDHS planned to turn the farm into a township housing about 4 000 families, but two years after the purchase there is still no sign of development.Assistant director for communications at Midvaal, Kagiso Korae, told amaBhungane the project belonged to GDHS but the application to establish a formal township had yet to be submitted.
The source said that the GDHS approached them to enquire if it made sense to purchase the property so that the people of Sicelo informal settlement could be relocated to proper housing.
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AMABHUNGANE: Shaky ground — property magnate, Rali Mampeule embroiled in police investigation of R70m alleged ‘land flip’The Gauteng government bought a Midvaal farm for more than 10 times the price it was sold for only a few years before. The R70m transaction was a windfall for the middleman, property tycoon Rali Mampeule, whose company was paid out R44m in ‘commission’ on the deal. Now the police are investigating, but Mampeule insists he’ll be vindicated.
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