Land scam allegations are back to haunt Mabuza
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has referred a criminal complaint against deputy president David Mabuza and others to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in connection with an alleged land restitution scam that has seen six criminal cases squashed.
Allegations of wrongdoing by Mabuza when he was a member of the Mpumalanga government have been persistent, but this criminal complaint by Outa will be a dark cloud hanging over his head if he has to step into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s shoes should the latter leave office because of the Phala Phala matter. Mabuza is not on the ballot for election to top ANC leadership positions at the December ANC elective conference.
Although the ANC leadership has rallied around Ramaphosa in the face of damning findings by an independent panel and ANC MPs are likely to do likewise when they vote on the panel’s report next week, there are still a number of investigations into the Phala Phala theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars under way by the Hawks, the SA Revenue Service and the Reserve Bank, among others, so Ramaphosa is not out of the woods yet.
The saga around land restitution in Mpumalanga, which has been widely covered in the media, dates back to 2002 and has resulted in numerous charges being laid and several court cases. In the past, Mabuza has insisted that there was no evidence against him and has denied any involvement.
Outa wants the NPA to probe charges of organised crime under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act against 13 individuals, including Mabuza, and two businesses. The complaint, supported by an affidavit by Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage, was laid on Monday.
The land restitution scam in Mpumalanga allegedly involved obtaining beneficial control of vast tracts of land (sometimes fraudulently) and selling it at vastly inflated prices — in some cases as high as 2,500% — to the Land Claims Commission.
The allegations also relate to a
Problem Animal Fund enterprise, which generated income by selling hunting permits to the highest bidder and aiding and abetting the land scam.
Offences committed in furtherance of the criminal enterprise allegedly include defeating the ends of justice; theft; fraud; contempt of court; intimidation; extortion; and conspiracy, incitement or attempt to commit offences listed in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
According to Outa, the scam involved buying farms and acting as middlemen masquerading as farm owners, selling the farms at vastly inflated profits to the Mpumalanga Regional Land Claims Commission (MRLCC), which claimed the costs from the national department of land affairs, supposedly for communities of thousands of land “claimants”, despite no legal claims being registered for those farms. Labour tenancy claims were fraudulently presented as restitution claims for entire farms, and the claimants were not verified. There were also many more “claimants” than the population of the area, and it appears that no land claimants have benefited from these claims, Outa says.
According to a 2005 investigation by E&Y, total payments in respect of land purchases in eManzana (formerly Badplaas) by the MRLCC amounted to R206.3m between April 2003 and August 2004.
Outa said that in 2008, Mabuza — at the time the Mpumalanga MEC for agriculture, environment & land affairs
— set up the Greater Badplaas Land Claim Committee, which Outa believes was used to intimidate conservationist and whistle-blower Fred Daniel as part of a land grab.
Local police were assaulted. Daniel’s business partner was also assaulted, allegedly while Mabuza watched.
Daniel has raised this matter over several years, but Outa says law enforcement failed to take effective action.
Duvenage alleges in his affidavit that when Mabuza became deputy president, he continued to defeat the ends of justice.
Outa uses as evidence information from court records in Daniel’s civil action against the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and others in the high court in Pretoria over the loss of his 39,000ha nature reserve.
Duvenage says Mabuza was not cited as a defendant in this litigation “but his shadow looms over this case”, which was filed in 2010 and finally went to trial in August 2021. “Six police case dockets have gone missing in this matter, pointing to a highlevel cover-up of evidence of corruption,” Duvenage says.
In 1999, Daniel founded the Cradle of Life Project, which aimed to create socioeconomic opportunities for impoverished rural communities and to repair and protect biodiversity.
“This project became the target of corrupt interests” Outa says. “What runs like a bitter thread through Daniel’s experience are the attempts to defeat the ends of justice and smear his reputation as a conservationist.”
Duvenage claims the state attorney and prominent senior counsel have for nearly a decade-and-a-half continued to defeat the ends of justice to cover up the crimes. “The failure of law enforcement, perjury, defeating the ends of justice and the ongoing funding of the civil litigation by government are to blame for the longevity of the criminal enterprises.”
Duvenage notes that in 2015, retired judge William Heath calculated the loss to the local economy in eManzana by these activities at R35bn.