The Pretoria High Court has granted the Special Investigations Unit (SIU)'s application to recover R53 million worth of land sold by a land theft syndicate to real estate company RIC Development.
TThe Pretoria High Court has granted the Special Investigations Unit (SIU)'s application to recover R53 million worth of land sold by a land theft syndicate to real estate company RIC Development.
SIU spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago said the investigation focused on fraud and corruption between January 2008 and February 2022.
“As part of the investigation, the SIU obtained a number of affidavits from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. [the] Deed registration staff, external witnesses, and/or transferring attorneys as deeds,” he said.
The SIU found that individuals and private entities were involved in the transfer of government-owned property to citizens and private entities for their own benefit, including the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Deeds Registry in Vreiburg, Johannesburg and Pretoria. It was discovered that he had defrauded the company.
Kganyago said RIC Development bought more than 2,000 hectares of land in Zuurfontein, Gauteng province and developed it without knowing it was stolen.
He added that this would need to be transferred to the Gauteng Infrastructure Development Department, the original deed holder, and that R12 million would have to be paid to the department.
The confiscation order included R53 million to R12 million held by the alleged fraud company through bank guarantees, and R41 million for low-income housing and a school planned for Zuurfontein, north of Johannesburg. equivalent to the development price of
In February, the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) and SIU were granted a preservation order, giving the Public Works Department full control of the assets while the order is in force.
The order enabled the AFU to freeze agricultural holdings and farms associated with the fraudulent transfer of government land to private entities. It also prohibits anyone other than the public works department from handling the land in question.
According to a joint statement from the SIU and NPA, similar preservation orders for other lands were granted by the Pretoria High Court on September 9, 2022, worth approximately R144 million, bringing the total amount of frozen assets to approximately R197 million. It is said to have cost Rand 10,000.
