Johannesburg - Residents of Mmakau, outside Pretoria, have accused billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe of making promises but not keeping them, it was reported on Sunday.
The Sunday Sun reported that residents were angry because Motsepe was neglecting his home village, where Motsepe family businesses were standing empty and jobs had been lost.
In January, Motsepe announced that his family would contribute at least half the money generated by its assets to charity.
“They say charity begins at home, but for him it's something else,” resident Nicholas Moledi told the newspaper.
“He's doing nothing for Mamelodi people.”
Another resident, Thabo Modula, said shops owned by Motsepe's family closed in 2008.
He told the Sunday Sun that many people working for the family had lost their jobs.
“Motsepe had promised to develop a hostel built by his father for employees, but nothing had been done,” Modula was quoted as saying.
“If you ask people about Patrice, they don't want to hear anything about him.”
However, a close relative of the Motsepe family, Army Sefolo said the billionaire could not be blamed because the village was “dilapidated”.
Motsepe's spokesman Peter Ledwaba told the newspaper the businessman had been involved in assisting poor families, students and charitable initiatives in Mmakau and in the broader Madibeng Municipality.
He said Motsepe had not promised to build anything without the support of the local community's leadership, the Mmakau tribal council and the Madibeng municipality and that money had been made available to develop an old shopping centre. - Sapa