Cyril Ramaphosa leads raft of MPs investing their cash in property

Members of Parliament are investing in land and property all around the country and President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading the pack with 32 apartments and townhouses listed under his name.

This was contained in a report of declarations of financial and other interests by MPs‚ for the year 2017‚ which was made public this week.

According to the disclosures‚ two of Ramaphosa’s properties are small flats in Cape Town – measuring 70 and 75 square metres - while the rest are townhouses in Johannesburg. Seven of the townhouses are in retirement villages.

Ramaphosa‚ the former deputy president who became South Africa’s president in February‚ also declared his substantial financial interests in cattle and game farming‚ as well as abattoirs. His Ntaba Nyoni Estates is listed as “Game Farming (Loan Account)” with a nominal value of R120.7-million while his cattle interests are declared as Ntaba Nyoni Feedlot (Loan Account) valued at R6-million.

The now late struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had declared four properties under her name. Three were in Soweto while the fourth was in one of Cape Town's most sought-after areas‚ Chapman's Peak.

Other MPs who could be labelled as property moguls are: 

• The ANC's Millicent Manana. She revealed that she had 17 properties to her name‚ 10 of which are cluster homes. The properties are in Ermelo and Witbank.
• The DA's Michael Bagraim. He has 15 properties registered to him‚ all of which are in Cape Town.
• Dennis Gamede of the ANC declared eight properties. Two of these were listed as shops.
• Cope's Mosioua Lekota is also a notable property owner. Under his declarations‚ Lekota says he has a piece of agricultural land in Jacobsdal and business premises in Orange Farm. Lekota said he had five residential properties and another piece of land intended for the development of residential property.
• Livhuhani Mabija of the ANC declared three open sites in Muledzhi village in Limpopo‚ two in Mutodi village and three houses in three Limpopo villages.