Frustrated land reform beneficiaries in Mpumalanga have accused Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso of going silent after being handed documentary evidence relating to what they described as an unlawfully obtained R62-million mortgage bond registered over their restituted farm along the N4 Highway outside Mbombela.
The Mawulu Communal Property Association (CPA), which represents beneficiaries of Farm Richmond 287 JT and Belmont 289 near Sudwala Caves, said it met Nyhontso in Randburg in August last year, and handed him documents relating to the bond and a 30-year lease affecting the property.
CPA chairperson Sinky Mnisi said they approached the minister after delays in the police investigations into their fraud complaint involving individuals and companies linked to the bond.
The police case was opened in 2024.
“We eventually met the minister in Randburg, where we presented a stack of documents showing that some individuals and companies had taken our title deeds without our knowledge or approval and then went and secured a bond and a loan of R62-million,” Mnisi said.
“To be precise, the mortgage bond was obtained without the knowledge or approval of the CPA.”
Mnisi said Nyhontso undertook to investigate and revert to them.
He initially responded to follow-up calls, emails and messages, but communication allegedly stopped in November last year.
CPA secretary Tebeni Maseko said the association finds the silence concerning, particularly because the current executive committee was properly
elected during a successful annual general meeting in 2024.
“The department acknowledged our new CPA committee after the 2024 AGM,” Maseko said. “We are not an illegitimate structure. We followed due process, and the department recognised that. As we speak, we do not know whether we still have our land or not.”
Sunday World has seen some of the documents submitted to the minister. Among them is a letter dated December 12, 2019, authored by the then acting deputy director-general of land tenure and administration, which stated that the department did “not regard any committee that purports to act on behalf of the Mawulu CPA to be a legitimate committee”.
The letter recorded that the terms of a 2014-elected executive committee expired in 2017 and that no properly recognised structure had been confirmed at the time. Sunday World has also seen a forensic investigation memorandum dated February 14, 2021, compiled by the chief
directorate: internal audit of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development.
The memorandum recommended that the acting director-general instruct the Mpumalanga chief director: restitution management support to expedite the Mawulu CPA land claim in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994.
It further recorded that Portion 7 of Farm Richmond 287 JT had been paid for, but that there was no evidence of it being transferred. According to Mnisi, no action was taken.
The forensic unit also suggested checking if the properties sold after being officially announced were legal, looking into the CPA’s finances after it was put under administration, and considering disciplinary action against some officials in the Mpumalanga regional land claims commission for not accelerating the claim process on time.
A criminal case relating to the alleged registration of the R62-million bond was opened under Nelspruit CAS 151/12/2024.
In August last year, police informed the CPA that affidavits from the deeds office and IDC had been obtained, along with bank statements, while additional account records were still awaited. “We don’t understand why it would take law enforcement agencies two years to handle a case of fraud.”
Sunday World has further learned that tensions escalated last week when CPA members visited the farm after noticing increased activity on the land. Upon arrival, they found foreign nationals from Mozambique working there.
“When we questioned why they were on our farm, they said they were employed and that no one was going to remove them,” Mnisi said. “An altercation ensued, and several of our members were injured, including one who remains in hospital with stab wounds and broken arms. Police were called to the scene to defuse the situation.”
The CPA said it was disappointed in Nyhontso, whom it had regarded as an “Izwe lethu campaigner-in-chief” after his appointment to the government of national unity from the ranks of the PAC, a party long associated with land reform advocacy.
“We would have expected the PAC, which talks about land, to have been of assistance, but here we are,” Mnisi quipped.
Sunday World sent questions to Department of Land Reform and Rural Development spokesperson Linda Page, but no response was received.
Minister Nyhontso also had not responded to our media enquiries at the time of going to print.
Hawks provincial spokesperson Lieut-Col Magonseni Nkosi denied any delays in the investigation, stating that it was now at an advanced staged.
“The Hawks in Mpumalanga can confirm that the above-mentioned docket is under investigation. Our investigation is at the advanced stage,” he said on Thursday.
However, Nkosi emphasised that the details of the case could not be shared in public “as that might jeopardise our investigation.”
