The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) qqhas uncovered massive corruption in the City of Ekurhuleni, revealing that 208 municipal properties in Villa Liza near Boksburg valued at R58 million were allegedly fraudulently transferred into private hands.
The SIU investigated 221 vacant municipal stands, involving 229 transfer transactions between 2018 and 2022, and found that 208 were transferred without council approval and without the City receiving a cent.
The investigation was authorised by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2024 under Proclamation R195 of 2024. The final report has now been submitted to the presidency.
According to the SIU, an alleged agent identified vacant municipal stands that had not yet been allocated and facilitated their illegal sale to private individuals.
The unit also fingered Moki Attorneys Incorporated, a law firm not on Ekurhuleni’s panel of approved attorneys, which it says was used to process the fraudulent transfers.
To make the deals appear legitimate, forged rates-clearance certificates and fabricated powers of attorney were allegedly submitted to the Johannesburg Deeds Office. The SIU said there is no evidence that deeds office officials were part of the scheme.
The scale of the undervaluation is staggering. The stands were recorded as being sold for about R18,000 each, despite municipal valuations ranging from R80,000 to R3.7 million. Some were later flipped for an average of R250,000.
“The municipality did not receive payment from the transactions,” the SIU found, noting that cash payments were used to obscure the financial trail.
The SIU has referred the matter to the National Prosecuting Authority for criminal prosecution, and to the Legal Practice Council, the South African Revenue Service and the Financial Intelligence Centre for further action against those implicated.
Although the SIU is seeking to have all unlawful transfers reversed, the properties have not yet been returned to the City.
In June 2026, the SIU obtained an interim interdict barring the registered owners or occupants of the 208 properties from selling, transferring, leasing, donating, developing, or otherwise dealing with the land.
The unit said it will now approach the Special Tribunal to have the transfers reviewed and set aside and to recover the municipality’s losses.
But recovery will be complicated. Some of the fraudulently acquired stands have already been resold to unsuspecting third-party buyers, while others have been developed with houses built on them.
The legal fate of those homeowners and subsequent purchasers will depend on the individual circumstances of each transaction and the outcome of the Tribunal process.
In the wake of the scandal, the SIU has recommended that Ekurhuleni urgently strengthen its systems to protect municipal land, including verifying municipal services before registering new properties, regularly updating and verifying its immovable-asset register, conducting physical inspections of municipal-owned land and carrying out annual audits.
It has also recommended the City enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Deeds Office to tighten safeguards around municipal land transfers and prevent a repeat of the Villa Liza heist.
