Johannesburg - The biggest land restitution fraud case in South Africa, involving more than R70 million and a proposed R2.5 billion project, could return to haunt prominent Mpumalanga businessmen and politicians.
The case against at least five of the accused – who were facing charges of fraud and theft in connection with a land restitution deal in Badplaas, Mpumalanga – was withdrawn two years ago.
The investigation has since been widened and top politicians have been implicated.
The accused, who last appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court in 2013, were three officials of the Investment for Agricultural Sustainability in Africa (Ifasa), Gustav Uys De Waal, Gert Pienaar and Ferdinand Odendaal, an Ndwandwe community trustee, Mangisi Nkosi, and land speculator and farmer Pieter Visagie.
The Hawks accused them of being involved in R70m in fraudulent land claims and of theft of the Ndwandwe community trust deed.
They allegedly intended to use the trust deed to secure the community’s land in Badplaas for a R2.5bn investment in a communal farming project.
According to the charge sheet, Visagie and Nkosi allegedly stole documents of the Ndwandwe trust from the Master of the High Court and removed the name of the trust’s founding member, Robert Nkosi, in 2011.
They and Ifasa then allegedly approached the Mpumalanga Department of Rural Development and Land Reform with the fraudulent trust deed and presented their proposal to invest in the area.
The Master of the High Court revoked the deed in October 2011 after Robert Nkosi complained.
The trust had successfully claimed 21 farms worth about R51m in 2003.
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the State had withdrawn the case due to a lack of evidence.
“After some months, the prosecutor phoned the investigating officer (and said) that there was an advocate who needed the cases for review,” Mulaudzi said .
“It is unknown what happened thereafter but, according to our system, the cases were filed at the Badplaas police station.”
An investigation by Paul O’Sullivan Forensic and Loss Control Consultants has established that the charges were withdrawn before forensic evidence could be presented that the network of alleged fraudsters was wider than the State anticipated.
This evidence implicated Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza, who was then the MEC for agriculture and land management, O’Sullivan said.
“It’s either the State hit a wall or there has been political interference not to continue with the prosecution. But I am not going to rest until someone goes to jail because that money could have been used to uplift the lives of poor people.
“We have ample evidence for a successful prosecution.”
The forensic report indicates that Mabuza and a government official, Sunnyboy Sunday Maphanga, had a close relationship and were business partners during the contentious multimillion-rand land reform deals that cost the taxpayer more than R72m.
Mabuza was the province’s MEC for agriculture and land administration from 2008 to May 6, 2009.
The forensic report alleges Mabuza and Maphanga were among land speculators and government officials who inflated and manipulated sale prices for a number of vegetable and dairy farms in the Badplaas valley.
Documents show that Maphanga, who was at the time the deputy director of land reform services, was the co-author of a joint task team report that evaluated information relating to Visagie’s properties in Badplaas.
Visagie was paid R21.8m, allegedly for properties he had not owned but which he sold to the government, the report says.
Maphanga headed the task team. Mabuza approved the team’s report and said Visagie, who by then had received R18m, should be paid an additional R3.3m.
Maphanga and Mabuza were co-directors in Nelesco 85, which signed a memorandum of understanding in Mozambique to build a R7.2bn integrated shopping mall, a five-star hotel, a casino and residential rental development.
They allegedly had a fallout after the deal failed to go through.
Maphanga now holds a senior position in the ranks of the Economic Freedom Fighters in Mpumalanga.
Asked to comment, Maphanga confirmed that Mabuza had been his business partner when Mabuza was a member of Parliament in the early 2000s until he became the MEC for transport in Mpumalanga in 2007.
In a written response, Mabuza’s spokesman, Zibonele Mncwango, said: “The Honourable Premier confirms that Mr Maphanga was indeed working in the Department of Agriculture at the time.
“He also confirms that, by the time he was a member of Parliament in Cape Town, (he) indeed started a company together with Mr Maphanga. However, that company never traded.
“Therefore, linking the Honourable Premier with the things that were not the responsibility of the MEC at that time is malicious and unfounded.”
Sunday Independent