The Pretoria High Court has harshly condemned the late former Deputy President David Dabede “DD” Mabuza, even in his grave, for his alleged corrupt, coordinated, and cruel campaign to destroy a multi-billion rand conservation project and expel its founder from the province.
Judge Neil Tuchten, in a searing 181-page ruling handed down on Monday, 25 September, awarded R306-million in damages to Grand Valley Estates, the core corporate entity behind the ambitious conservation project called “Nkomazi Wilderness”.
The judgment is a devastating indictment of Mabuza’s political operations, which weaponised state power to persecute a legitimate businessman and the architect of Nkomazi Wilderness, Fred Daniel, who refused to participate in a massive land claims fraud scheme.
Dispute goes back to 2010
The case, which has a procedural history stretching back to 2010, exposed what the judge termed a “collusive agreement” involving the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), the Regional Land Claims Commission (RLCC), and Mabuza himself, who served as Mpumalanga’s Premier and MEC for Agriculture before his ascendance to the national deputy presidency.
According to the judgment, Daniel had assembled 30,000 hectares of land, secured R380-million in funding from Kerzner International, and had the backing of the Development Bank of Southern Africa to implement the project.
However, his dream of a world-class, high-end eco-tourism reserve was, the court found, systematically dismantled because he exposed and refused to participate in a corrupt land-brokering scheme run by a figure named Pieter Visagé. This was after Mabuza told Daniel in a phone call to admit the land claims over the project lands and sell them to the Ndwandwe Trust.
Tuchten found that when Daniel refused, Mabuza, who died after a short illness in July this year, used his political power to orchestrate mob violence and instruct police to stand down, creating an atmosphere of lawlessness to intimidate Daniel.
150 protesters bused in
The court heard evidence of a protest on August 2, 2008, where about 150 people were bused in from Middelburg. Warrant Officer Vermeulen testified that police were ordered to stay away as the mob burnt tyres and cut fences. Mabuza arrived and addressed the crowd, promising them the land.
Crucially, the court accepted Daniel’s evidence of a 13-minute phone call with Mabuza on 29 August 2008. During this call, Mabuza told Daniel that to secure protection, he must “admit the land claims over the Project lands and sell them to the Ndwandwe Trust.”
Tuchten eviscerated this statement, writing, “This is not language becoming a reputable politician. Shorn of its protective camouflage… The circumlocution was intended to show Mr Daniel that Mr Mabuza was able to withhold from Mr Daniel the protection of the SAPS… What he was really saying to Mr Daniel was that he, Mr Mabuza, chose not to protect him unless Mr Daniel did what Mr Mabuza told him to do.”
The judge concluded that this was not an offer of protection but an act of extortion. “It is in my judgment no coincidence that Mr Mabuza advised Mr Daniel to sell the project lands to the Ndwandwe Trust, one of the instruments chosen by Visagé for the execution of the land claims racket.”
Official overhead plotting
The conspiracy extended deep into the provincial bureaucracy. In a pivotal piece of evidence, tourism coordinator Athol Stark testified that he overheard MTPA official Abe Sibiya instructing wildlife official Jan Muller in a corridor to use land claims as a reason to withhold the crucial “Big Five” permits Daniel needed for his reserve.
Tuchten accepted this evidence, noting Stark’s immediate decision to drive to Nkomazi to report the incident to Daniel. “It is improbable in the extreme that Mr Stark would have concocted this evidence,” the judge stated, finding that Muller later lied under oath about the instruction.
This bureaucratic sabotage was paired with what the court described as a “cruelty” designed to break Daniel’s spirit. In a dramatic raid on 18 June 2008, officials, led by Superintendent Phillipus Kritzinger, seized rehabilitated animals from Daniel’s sanctuary—including leopards and wild dogs—and transported them to a substandard facility. One leopard, which was recovering from dental injuries, was shot en route.
Judge finds raid was not justified
The judge found the raid had no legal justification and was timed to occur while Daniel was in court. He described the operation as a demonstration that officials “were not merely officers of the law: they were the law.”
In his final analysis, Tuchten pulled no punches. He dismissed the defendants’ legal technicalities and found that the delictual claim was the only way to achieve justice for Daniel.
The R306-million award comprises R38-million for the undervalued sale of land and R268 million for lost future profits. Tuchten also granted a punitive costs order, holding the MTPA and RLCC jointly and severally liable for the plaintiffs’ legal fees on an attorney-client scale, including the costs of the entire, protracted history of the case.
