AfriForum on 10 December laid charges of fraud and corruption against two companies at the SAPS in Nelspruit. A land transaction of R34 million gave cause to this action being taken upon further investigation.
The farm Biggar 644JT part 1 was in September 2011 sold to Bongiveli for the amount of R12 million. Bongiveli then sold the land for R15 million to Vantiblox in January 2017. In March 2020, Vantiblox in turn sold the land to the Mbombela Local Municipality at a cost of R34 million. The deed numbers of the transactions also simply follow straight after each other, which indicates that the land was never transferred to Vantiblox until after the resale thereof to the Municipality took place.
“This transaction doesn’t make sense at all, especially not if the tax implications of such a transfer is taken into consideration. It merely seems as though the transaction was only made to cover up Bongiveli’s involvement,” says Chris Gouws, Investigator at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.
Further investigation by the Private Prosecution Unit however brought to light that Bongiveli is involved in a fraud case where more than R24 million of the Department of Social Development was lost in similar transactions.
According to an article in The Sowetan, Bongiveli bought the farm Rietfontein (414 ha) outside Ermelo in Mpumalanga from Fremax Farms for R11,9 million and six minutes later sold it to the Department of Social Development for R36,4 million.
Bongiveli’s directors already appeared in court and are currently out on bail of R10 000 in connection with the Rietfontein case.
“AfriForum will continuously monitor the situation and if the state doesn’t want to take the matter further, our Private Prosecution Unit will apply to privately prosecute the people involved,” says Hennie Bekker, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Lowveld.