Ladysmith Land

At the beginning of last year a multi-million rand property transaction was finalised in Ladysmith. The land that was sold stretches from KwaZulu-Natal to the Free State and the owner lived in this farmhouse. Eight farms were included in the deal. They were bought as a going concern, which included the cattle and the farm implements, as well as this lavish mansion and all its household content.

The mahogany staircase, the Persian carpets, professionally decorated bedrooms and luxurious kitchen fit the lifestyle of the very rich. There's even a home theatre for those rainy days in the countryside. About three kilometres away, two families live in abject poverty. They are meant to be the owners of the mansion and the 4000 hectares that surround it. Instead, Nalid Mabaso shares this dwelling [on screen] with his extended family. There's no running water or electricity, and even if there was, nobody living here has the money to pay for it. 63-year-old Nalid hasn't worked since November last year and they survive on R1 000 a month, provided by his sons.

Nalid Mabaso: 'They have stopped the transport to work and it's too far to walk there.'

On the other side of the fence lives Agrippa Mtshali with his wife and their children. Apart from these chickens, some goats and a few head of cattle, they own very little. The old farmhouse they live in was once well equipped but, without running water and electricity, it has long lost its charm. Agrippa's wife says the only benefit of living here is that it's near the school bus stop.

The KwaZulu-Natal Rural Development and Land Affairs Department facilitated the sale in terms of the Land Reform Act 3 of 1996. To finance the deal, the department used the rights of so-called 'labour tenants', like the Mabasos and Mtshalis, as motivation to obtain government grants - not only for them, but for a total of 42 people who claimed to have ties with these farms.

Chantal Rutter (Carte Blanche presenter): 'To put it simply, it means that there needs to be enough people to qualify as shareholders in order to pay for the farm. And in this case it came to a whopping R36-million.'

But it seems someone forgot to tell the two families about their newly acquired wealth and property.

Nalid: 'Honestly, I don't know anything about it.'

Details of the deal are contained in this document [on screen], which names Agrippa and Nalid, as well as a third person, Philemon Mtshali, as the original applicants in the Labour Tenant claim. But the Mabasos and Mtshalis recognised very few of the other names, even though the beneficiaries were supposed to be family members and co-workers. What they do know is that two years ago, about eight people, who then lived and worked on the farms, were called to Ladysmith for a meeting with the local Department of Land Affairs. A senior official in the Ladysmith office, Sbu Chapi, addressed the meeting.

Chantal: 'He said the department is going to buy them a farm and all they had to do was bring in their IDs and the IDs of all their relatives.'

The Mabasos and Mtshalis refused to do this, yet curiously dozens of names, complete with ID numbers, somehow made the list. So what was the plan?

Chantal: 'Specific reference is made in the documents that the beneficiaries would get a strategic partner who would help with the commercial operation of the farm. Surprisingly this partner is not a farmer but a well-known family that runs a string of businesses and has properties in the town of Ladysmith.'

They are the Sewparsads, Father Ammachand, sometimes known as Billy Green, his daughter-in-law Naresha, and her husband Roshen.

[On screen]: 'Broker Sentenced' (Ladysmith Gazette)

Roshen is a convicted fraudster and gold smuggler who has avoided time in prison by doing a thousand hours of community service and paying fines amounting to R200 000. The Sewparsads refused to be interviewed on camera, but Roshen spoke to us on the phone.

[On phone] Roshen Sewparsad: 'If you have it in writing, give it to me. I'm saying to you I'm not willing to participate.'

Alf Lees has been investigating the deal for the past year. He's a member of parliament who lives in Ladysmith and is involved in the farming community.

Chantal: 'In terms of the Land Reform Act, how would you define the beneficiaries who are land tenants?'

Alf Lees (Member of Parliament - DA): 'Obviously if you are going to be a labour tenant you have got to be a resident on the land, and then you have to establish a labour tenant relationship with the owner. So you have to, at some stage, give employment in return for the land.'

Chantal: 'Now, in terms of that, how would you define a strategic partner?'

Alf: 'Strategic partner is a concept that is coming out of the need to ensure that land is sustainable once it's been handed over to the claimants. And so there is nothing sinister about a strategic partner. It is the relationship between that strategic partner and the beneficiaries which can be problematic.'

Alf has established that the department paid R22-million for the eight farms and that another R14-million was earmarked for moveable assets and further development. To his astonishment, he also found that a company called ABRINA 6822 LTD held the title deeds for the eight farms and that Roshen and Naresha Sewparsad were the only directors. No mention of the Mabasos and Mtshalis... nor of any [of the] other beneficiaries.

Alf: 'It would appear that the beneficiaries are not in fact aware that they are beneficiaries, and they are now becoming aware of it, and they are asking questions.'

... and so did we.

Interestingly, Roshen then suddenly resigned as a director of the company. We were also interested to hear what the Department of Land Affairs in Ladysmith had to say. The official currently in charge of the project is Patrick Masoka, but he referred us to office manager, Promise Makhanya.

She in turn referred us to Sbu Chapi, who had originally coordinated the deal.

[Hidden camera] Chantal: 'How did you source the strategic partner?'

[Hidden camera] Sbu Chapi: 'That is what I am saying... I was not involved in the actual project.'

[Hidden camera] Chantal: 'The document shows that you were actually involved in presenting those strategic partners.'

[Hidden camera] Sbu: 'No, not the strategic partners. I presented it because it was a labour tenant claim, but after that...'

[Hidden camera] Chantal: 'So you did present it?'

[Hidden camera] Sbu: 'I did present it - initially it was without the strategic partners.'

When pressed for answers about the ghost beneficiaries, Sbu showed us the door.

[Hidden camera] Sbu: 'No, you are not getting me. I am saying I have nothing to say now. Put it in writing.'

[Hidden camera] Chantal: 'So you are not going to make any comments at all about this?'

[Hidden camera] Sbu: 'No, I am not.'

And off he went in his fancy car with personalised number plates.And the Sewparsads, who own this Auto Zone branch in Ladysmith, eventually answered our questions through their lawyer.And that's when the case became really confusing. They deny that the deal was a Labour Tenant claim, despite official departmental documents indicating that it was.

[Lawyer's letter] 'There was no involvement with any claim by Labour Tenants. The properties were for sale and ABRINA 6822 LTD approached the sellers to acquire it and secured funding from the Department of Land Affairs.'

[Lawyer's letter] 'In return the purchaser undertook to uplift the skills of the residents on the farms.'

[Lawyer's letter] 'There was no mention made of any strategic partner. That was never a term or condition of the sale or requirement for the provision of funding.'

In another puzzling revelation, the Sewparsads state that their Family Trust is the only shareholder of ABRINA 6822 LTD and that the company is indeed the legal owner of the eight farms, now called Billy Green Ranches. But not according to Mdu Shabane, Deputy Director General of Land Reform.

Mdu Shabane (Deputy Director General Land Reform - Dept of Rural Development & Land Affairs): 'Legally land reform beneficiaries, for whom the amount of money was approved, should be the beneficiaries. But unfortunately we have discovered, since your investigation, that the land was not transferred to them, but rather to another company with a similar name. From our point of view the transaction is fraudulent. The current owners in whose name the land is now registered should not be the owners because they were never the beneficiaries of the project.'

The Sewparsads, who apparently use the luxury farmhouse as a weekend retreat, say the household contents were not part of the sale. But we have a list of furniture that was included in the deal.

Mdu: 'As far as we are concerned, all those things are illegal, because the person who lives in that house has got no business to be on that farm.' And allegations are mounting. We obtained this invoice showing that income made from grass harvested on the farm was deposited into the Sewparsad's Auto Zone business account and not into the farm's account.

Mdu: 'Just last week, the person who lives in the house was trying to remove livestock from the farm. And our office had to send the police to stop him.'

The department has since asked the Provincial Commissioner of Police in KwaZulu-Natal for help and he has assigned the Hawks to the case.

Mdu: 'Once they have got the information and the evidence is clear, then the Hawks will work together with the asset forfeiture unit.'

One of the many documents the department's head office has since obtained was signed with a cross, allegedly by Nalid Mabaso.

Mdu: 'I doubt that he was capable of negotiating such a transaction. As a matter of fact, they don't even know that they own the land. So, my view is that they were duped by somebody colluding with others. I suspect that there is a whole range of people in the whole value chain that had a hand in making sure that this transaction ends up in the manner that it has.'

Patrick Masoka, Promise Makhanya and Sbu Chapi, the three Land Affairs officials at the Ladysmith office, have been suspended as a result of this Carte Blanche investigation.

Source: Carte Blanche