A plot of land has allegedly been sold to the Mbombela council for R11-million having been purchased for R3,1-million on the same day that it was sold.
The Sunday Times published allegations against Mbombela’s town planner, Patrick Chirwa over the weekend.
Chirwa has been accused of using his company, Pacific Breeze Trading 474 to buy cheap land and sell it at an exorbitant profit to municipalities seeking land for housing and social services.
Company records and title deeds to land show that between 2007 and 2008 Pacific Breeze bought four smallholdings for R7,6-million and then allegedly sold the same land to the government for R44,4-million.
The provincial government apparently financed the purchase of the land by municipalities.
Chirwa is apparently part of Lusito Development Specialists, a controversial company that intended to develop a social housing project near White River but ran into stiff opposition from residents there who formed the White River Concerned Citizens Committee.
The social housing development has yet to get underway. David Dube, head of the provincial division of the Department of Human Settlements, says that proper processes were followed when the properties were purchased and therefore there is nothing that warrants investigation or legal action.
Chirwa has confirmed that he made huge profits from the deals but claimed that property developers took huge risks and were entitled to make large profits.
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You have just scratched the top of the ice surface. The very same people you wrote about are going to build three malls at different places controlled by the municipalities in this Mpumalanga because of the links you have referred to. - Please just continue to do your investigations at both Department of Human Settlement and Department of Public Works to see how much and how many construction projects have been awarded to them - construction for houses, roads and schools - They were appointed to do the asset register for the whole province by Public Work and most of their work is not completed. - Concerned Citizen