The Commercial Crimes Unit is to investigate an apparently dodgy deal in which land valued at R2.4 million was bought by the Bitou municipality in the Western Cape for R28 million.
The 38 hectare area was to be used for a new low-income housing development in the town.
In January this year the Bitou municipality – controlled at the time by the ANC – resolved to buy two properties next to New Horizons residential area for R28 million from Wavelengths 252, the registered owner of the properties.
An offer to purchase was signed and a memorandum of agreement was sealed between the provincial Department of Human Settlements and Bitou council to buy the land.
The money was paid into a trust fund pending the finalisation of the sale – but this never happened because the Department of Human Settlements commissioned an independent valuation of the land and found it was valued at just R2.4million.
Now Wavelengths 252 director, JJS Swart is to approach the High Court for an interdict to force Bitou to honour its agreement.
However, Bitou’s speaker Johann Brummer says that the deal to purchase the land was done very hastily by the ANC-controlled council and this was a further cause for alarm.
Moreover, he says, the National Prosecuting Authority is expected to decide next month whether or not to prosecute the case.
According to an independent estate agent in Knysna, Michael Jacobs, there is “no way” the land can only be worth R2.4 million as he says he valued the properties at R25 million in September last year and his estimation had been confirmed by a Port Elizabeth-based property consultant, Graham Boyd.
There have been a string of allegations against the Bitou municipality over the years and the council’s Mayor, Memory Booysen, admits that millions of rands have been lost under the town’s previous ANC government.
He warns Plettenberg Bay ratepayers that paving blocks and other materials worth about R500k and used to build roads in Kwanokuthula are being removed by the supplier because the contractor – who had been paid millions by the council – has not paid for them.
He says this is just one of many illegal contracts that were awarded by the ANC government when it was running the council.
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