The Gauteng MEC for human settlements and infrastructure development, Lebogang Maile, ordered on Wednesday that an investigation must be carried out into the R37 million house in Johannesburg in which adj.pres. Paul Mashatile lives.
However, this mansion in a luxury estate in Waterfall, Midrand, is not owned by Mashatile, but by his son and son-in-law.
The deputy president’s camp will probably have to fight back as his son-in-law previously received government loans of millions of rands from the Gauteng government.
News24 reports that the property in question in Waterfall is registered in terms of a 99-year lease to Legacy Properties. Mashatile’s son, Thabiso, and his son-in-law, Nceba Nonkwelo, are the directors of Legacy Properties. Nonkwelo has been married to Mashatile’s daughter, Palesa, since 2006.
Deed office records show Legacy Properties financed the mansion in Waterfall with a loan from another of Nonkwelo’s companies, Nonkwelo Investment Holdings (NIH). A bond of R37 million has been registered in NIH’s name.
Legacy Properties closed the purchase in December last year, with registration and transfer in March this year, the same month Mashatile was named deputy president.
However, another company of which Nonkwelo is a director, Nonkwelo Investments (NI) – which is registered at the same address as NIH – previously received multi-million rand loans from an entity of the Gauteng government.
News24 reports that this entity at one stage provided millions of rands to NI for the provision of student accommodation. It is more than ten years later and nothing seems to have come of this project. The site where the student housing was to be built is, on the contrary, overgrown and abandoned.
Nceba Nonkwelo was the sole director when the loans were advanced to NI at the time.
According to political parties’ funding donation reports made public by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), NIH donated a total of R2 million to the ANC in April 2021.
However, Mashatile denies that he was in any position to influence the granting of any loans, tenders or government contracts.
News24 recently contacted Mashatile’s son-in-law to establish how the R37 million loan to buy the Waterfall mansion was financed. However, Nonkwelo refused to disclose the source of NIH’s income.
The website also earlier reported that Mashatile has seemingly perfected the art of making use of assets and properties not registered in his name. Until recently, the deputy president regularly used two multi-million rand houses belonging to the controversial businessman Edwin Sodi and businessman Ndavhe Mareda.
Mashatile hit back after the reports and said he had done nothing wrong.
“The Deputy President does not have ownership or permanent use of any properties purchased by these individuals and companies. The deputy president will challenge anyone to prove the contrary,” she said to the office.
His office has not yet responded to the latest reports.
His son, Thabiso, did say that his father is currently living in the mansion in Waterfall after receiving threats from a former girlfriend.
This despite taxpayers paying R3 248 746 every year to maintain the deputy president’s official residence.
Mashatile recently in an interview with City Press said there was a conspiracy to have him removed from office. Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa denies this.
“I told him in a conversation with the deputy president: ‘I appointed you and I am the only person who can stand in your way’,” Ramaphosa said on Sunday.
