IN PICS | A walk through the Guptas' properties before auction day

Three properties formerly owned by the controversial Gupta family in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, are set to be auctioned individually on July 24. Located within a single estate, the homes include:

• a three-storey mansion;
• a single-storey house with three bedrooms; and
• a 17-bedroom luxury dwelling.

The properties once served as the Gupta family’s South African residence during their rise to political influence.

During a recent media tour hosted by the auctioneers tasked with selling the properties, remnants of their lifestyle, from unused furniture to private prayer rooms and locked safes, offered a rare glimpse into the spaces they left behind when they departed the country in 2018 under a cloud of state capture allegations.

The Saxonwold compound was where the Gupta family wined and dined politicians in what was widely viewed as part of a strategy to capture state influence and secure government contracts.

The Guptas fled South Africa and are being pursued by the government to face criminal charges.

House No 5

First on the tour is house number five, a three-storey compound known among staff and auctioneers as “the white house”. From the outside, it appears as if the façade is weeping, the white paint peeling and curling off the walls like old wallpaper, revealing the brick beneath.

You are not welcomed by grandeur. Instead, it’s the blue park village auction posters pasted on pillars that meet your eye first, declaring the property’s impending fate.

Inside, the house feels cold. Not just in temperature but in spirit. There is a faint scent of abandonment and stale air that clings to the corridors.

Light filters through thick curtains and dust dancing in the rays. The house has eight bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. Some rooms still cradle remnants of life, dusty bed sheets, half-burnt candles, unopened shower gels and forgotten toys. It’s like time hit pause, but only for some things.

In one room, a prayer space is preserved with uncanny stillness. Two red chairs, incense, salts, candles and a picture of their deity remain, untouched. It feels sacred almost off-limits even now. All the electronics have been ripped from the walls. Wires dangle where televisions used to hang. Yet old-school telephones remain beside each bed.

There is mould in corners of the bedrooms, fed by roof leaks and disuse. Portraits signed by artist June Tuckett, hang slightly skew on the walls. According to Art Market Tuckett is an “artist born in South Africa in 1944. The artist's works have gone up for sale at public auction 75 times, mostly in the painting category.”

The indoor swimming pool still holds water, stagnant, cloudy and green. At the back, the garden remains lush with trees and flowers, but the grass is beginning to die. Nature is trying to reclaim what power it has left behind.

House No 3

This is the smallest and most overlooked of the trio, a single-storey house with three bedrooms, a storeroom, staff quarters and a small garage. It’s faded and seems forgotten.

Inside it feels like time stopped long ago. The kitchen with its brown wooden cupboards and outdated finishes has not been touched in years. According to the disposal manager from Park Village Auctions, Graham van Niekerk, the property was likely used by chefs or household staff.

The walls hold no art. The rooms no stories. The backyard is an expanse of brown and brittle grass. It feels like a servant’s home attached to a palace.

House No 7

This three-storey entertainment house features 17 en suite bedrooms, a mansion designed for pleasure, luxury and display. From the moment you enter you are greeted by a grand, triple-volume foyer with an atrium-style skylight that floods the space with natural light. It is the only warmth the building offers.

One floor up and you are inside a private cinema still furnished. Another wing holds a salon complete with massage machines, half-empty Depileve waxing products, and Johnson’s baby powder sitting on the shelf like someone is coming back for them.

Here the decoration shifts from cultural to opulent. Multiple lounges, thin carpets, mirrored panels. There is a sense that this building was not just about living, it was about hosting, flaunting and controlling.

This is the only property that lacks a garden. No trees, no flowers just brick paving.

Across all three properties, a theme echoes: they left in a hurry as the windows are shut, safes are locked, and some of the wardrobes are unopened.

According to van Niekerk, the Gupta homes have remained largely untouched. Last week, Park Village Auctions were given the green light by the court to go ahead with the auction.

TimesLIVE reported on Friday that bidders for the Gupta family's home in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, will be expected to fork out between R250,000 and R500,000 to take part in next month's auction of the infamous compound.

While the registration fee is set at R50,000 as a refundable deposit, the bidders will have to pay in an additional R500,000 to bid for property No 5 and No 7 (three-storey mansions) and pay R250,000 for the single-storey property No 3.

Van Niekerk concluded that “all remaining furniture will be sold as a single lot and that the properties are zoned as Residential 1, meaning they cannot be turned into a hotel or guest house.”

TimesLIVE