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The former State Security minister accuses the state of unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, malicious prosecution as well as loss of income when he was subjected to a trial for questionable land sales in Mpumalanga.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Former State Security minister, Bongani Bongo, has written letter of demand to government – claiming R38.2 million after he was unsuccessfully prosecuted in a dodgy land deals trial pertaining to his tenure as legal advisor to the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements.

Bongo was acquitted in the Mpumalanga High Court last November.

The Hawks charged Bongo alongside  11 people who were fingered for fraud and corruption in connection with dubious land deals amounting to almost R124 million.

They were alleged to have worked in cahoots to inflate prices of pieces of land the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements intended to purchase on behalf municipalities for spatial development.

The deals included the:

·      Rietspruit farm in Ermelo worth R11 million, yet sold for about R36.4 million in 2011, for development of a township;

·      70-hectare Malelane farm worth R44 million that was sold to the Nkomazi local municipality at R50 million in 2011; and

·      74.2 hectare Naauwpoort in Emalahleni worth R16 million but was sold for R37.5 million.

 All the suspects in the case were acquitted. They included former Mpumalanga ANC deputy chairperson, Dr David Dube, who was also the department’s head when the deals were concluded.

Others were former deputy president David Mabuza’s associates – town planners-cum-businessmen Patrick Chirwa and Harrington Dhlamini. When the trial started, both men had been estranged from Mabuza and their business partnership in a town planning company broken.

Bongo - according to the notice of legal action dated January 24 2025 directed to the National Prosecuting Authority, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development (Mmamoloko Kubayi), Minister of Police (Senzo Mchunu) and national police commissioner (General Fannie Masemola – is aiming to sue for unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, malicious prosecution as well as loss of income.

He was the department’s legal advisor from 2004 to 2011 when the Hawks arrested and charged him.

“As part of the ongoing investigation and in particular during the period 2011,” reads the notice from Singwane & Partners, “our client was approached by the members of the Hawks who accused him of corruption and there and then instructed him to file an affidavit in response to the alleged corruption which was committed by the officials of the department, which includes our client.”

A few weeks later, then Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza removed Bongo from his position to be the head of the Integrity Management Unit. Other top executives at Human Settlements were reshuffled to other positions after Mabuza accused them of “politicking.”

“This development has resulted to psychological trauma, humiliation and loss of income on the part of our client.”

After the May 2014 general elections, Bongo decided to leave civil service and go into politics full-time. He was  elected Member of Parliament.

Due to this case, Bongo claims that the ANC removed him from various positions that include departmental legal advisor, Member of Parliament, State Security minister and chairperson of the portfolio committee on Home Affairs.

The ANC then removed him from the list of officials for the 2024 National Parliament because of the step aside rule. Bongo would have been sworn into parliament for the May 2024 until 2029.

Bongo is claiming R1.2 million for discomfort, humiliation, degrading, pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life,emotional shock and trauma.

He is also claiming:

·      R7.8 million for loss of income as a result of step aside reckoned from 2011 to 2014;

·      R11 million for being removed from the 2024 National Assembly list and forced step aside;

·      R5 million for effect on employment and carrier limitations.

All of these claims total R25 million. The notice, however, does not explain how it arrived at R38.2 million.

The money should be paid by February 24.