The KwaDukuza Municipality has sounded alarm bells about the future of the R100m property development by Robert Mugabe’s former pilot.
|||The KwaDukuza Municipality has sounded alarm bells about the future of the R100-million Ballito property development by Robert Mugabe’s former pilot.
Hundreds of thousands of rand in municipal rates is owed on the property.
This emerged in papers filed in the Durban High Court in response to a counter-application launched by the property owner, Straightprops 92 and Formate Pty Ltd. Straightprops was responding to an application by the municipality to force it to submit building plans for approval, to stop work and to prevent occupation.
It has now emerged that the municipality obtained a default judgment of R602 225.22 against Straightprops in May.
The company has since been acquired by SalesTalk 403 Pty Ltd. Zimbabwean diamond mining magnate Robert Mhlanga is the sole director. He is also the sole director of Formate Pty Ltd and chairman of Mbada Diamonds in Zimbabwe.
A Mail and Guardian report yesterday claimed that a deeds search had revealed that Mhlanga, using various shelf companies, had bought four other properties over the past 18 months at inflated prices. These included two R29m mansions in Hyde Park, Sandton; a R25m house in Umhlanga Rocks and a R31m apartment in the Oysters, in Umhlanga.
In court papers, Kwadukuza Municipality building control officer Njabulo Ngwane, said of the Ballito property: “A private residence of the size and nature proposed cannot be accommodated by the existing zoning or property boundaries.
“Kwadukuza Municipality is extremely concerned that what is being constructed will prove too costly to maintain in the long term and become unmarketable and redundant.
“The first respondent (Straightprops 92) is already in arrears with payment of rates and judgment has been taken against it,” Ngwane said.
The municipality also outlined its reasons for rejecting the property plans. It alleged that the development had been undertaken in a “secretive manner”; that the municipality had not been advised about it; and the developer’s attitude was “puzzling and completely different from that which the applicant is used to when dealing with the professionals and contractors which the respondents have employed”.
He said the developer had not been forthcoming with detailed plans or information.
“The applicant has been denied access to working plans, drawings and other documents which will give details of what is being built,” Ngwane said.
However, Mhlanga’s attorney Lazelle Paola said yesterday that her client questioned the circumstances under which the default judgment had been granted and was unaware of it until he had seen the responding papers. She said her client would apply for rescission of the judgment.
“Our client’s dispute the validity of many of the items and many others are minor and not unusual in the context of a building plan application. All items are being addressed and the plans will be resubmitted,” Paola said.
“Our client’s dispute that the development has been undertaken in a secretive manner.
“The order did not prohibit access, and construction was not halted by the court. Only occupation of the new structures is prohibited until the issue of certificates of occupancy,” Paola said.
“All of the relevant matters raised in the council’s latest affidavits will be addressed and it is not appropriate to respond at this stage,” Paola said.
Asked to confirm or deny the report of four additional properties, Paola said, “it does not pertain to the litigation we are involved in and we hold no instructions therewith.”
She stated Mhlanga was not associated with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
“Dr Mhlanga denies having any business or other relationship with President Mugabe save that Dr Mhlanga is a Zimbabwean and Mugabe the head of state in Zimbabwe’”.
KwaDukuza Municipality was earlier granted an interim order by consent in which the developer agreed not to occupy any of the new structures on the properties, to submit building plans, to allow access to building inspectors and to demolish any further work done on the properties should plans not be approved.
The property comprises an existing upmarket dwelling, two new man-made dams, a new gazebo structure which functions as an entertainment area, a new guard house and a new changeroom.
Mhlanga had contended that the municipality had obstructed efforts to lodge plans on several occasions, but the municipality denied this.
Several attempts to contact Mhlanga through his local company in Joburg, Liparm, were unsuccessful on Friday.
Independent on Saturday