Inside Brian Molefe's North West paradise
Johannesburg - It might not have a shebeen, but the upmarket residential estate former Eskom boss Brian Molefe now calls home boasts plenty of other perks for "discerning families".
According to property records, Molefe’s R3.5m home in the Estate d’Afrique near the Hartbeespoort Dam, in North West, forms part of a portfolio of 15 properties worth R33.7m.
Molefe previously owned and sold another 10 properties worth R9m, according to property records.
Molefe’s house in the Estate d’Afrique was listed as his residential address on a membership form that the ANC’s Oom Govan Mbeki branch showed to journalists on Tuesday. The move followed criticism of the party’s possible move to have Molefe sworn in as an MP.
The North West ANC had indicated it wanted to nominate Molefe to the National Assembly as a member of the party’s Ward 29 branch in Hartbeespoort.
Critics within and outside the tripartite alliance had questioned whether Molefe was indeed a resident of North West and a member of the Oom Govan Mbeki branch.
Property records show Molefe bought his 939 m² property in the Estate d’Afrique in 2010.
According to the estate’s website, it "embraces the aspirations of discerning families and provides facilities and amenities that pertains to [the] delivery of such a lifestyle".
The exclusive estate boasts an abundance of fauna and flora in a tranquil and "unspoilt paradise", according to the website.
If Molefe is not big on birding, the estate has a pimped-out clubhouse with majestic views of the nearby dam. And for those days on which Molefe longs for his fabled "Saxonwold Shebeen", the estate has its very own pub.
Molefe claimed in November last year that the reason he visited Saxonwold, in Johannesburg, was to go to a shebeen in the area, and not to visit the Gupta family.
He said this following the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report. The document contains cellphone evidence that Molefe and Ajay Gupta, the eldest of three Gupta brothers, made 58 telephone calls to one another between August 2015 and March 2016.
Other activities and amenities on offer at Estate d’Afrique include hiking, boating, a fitness centre, and petanque. The estate describes the latter as "a form of boules where the goal is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball, while standing inside a starting circle with both feet on the ground".
