Johannesburg - The sale of Blaauwpan dam in Kempton Park, Gauteng, is illegal and has been reported to the Public Protector, environmentalists said on Wednesday.
"Today the ECA lodged a complaint with the Public Protector with respect to the alleged irregular and illegal sale of Blaauwpan Dam by the Ekurhuleni Metro to Africa Hall of Fame Trust and Universal Pulse Trading 18," Environment and Conservation Association (ECA) chairperson Nicole Barlow said in a statement.
She claimed the allegedly corrupt sale of the land also involved the Gauteng agriculture and rural development department.
The department could not immediately be reached for comment.
The purchase price of the land needed urgent attention, Barlow said. A total of 77 4071 hectares were sold for a "paltry" R10.5m, yet were worth close to R30m, according to an independent land valuator.
"The question is why didn't council have the land professionally and independently valued before selling it off?"
The dam was a popular recreational area, parts of it being a proclaimed and registered nature reserve called Pumula Park.
Barlow said the sales agreement was null and void because conditions contained in the legal contract were not adhered to.
"[The contract] basically states that should the original purchaser, in this case Fredonia Investments, ever wish to nominate an alternate purchaser, they can do so after the effective date comes into effect... [which] only comes into play when all the suspensive conditions have been met by the original purchaser, which of course was never done."
She said these "serious non-compliance issues" were brought to the attention of all three previous city managers, but she received "stone silence".
Ekurhuleni municipality spokesperson Zweli Dlamini, said he had no knowledge of the issue, but welcomed anyone with evidence of corruption to come forward.
Barlow said the ECA had not reported the issue to the current city manager, but would hopefully be meeting with him next week.
"We thought when we go to this meeting then we can tell them that we've already reported it to the Public Protector and ask if they are going to do anything about it."
Catastrophic Massive development was apparently planned for the area, including three hotels, a retirement village, a shopping mall, a conference centre and a residential development.
"Catastrophic environmental damage" would result from the development.
In a letter dated 2004, the then Gauteng environment department spelled out in "exhausting detail" the "environmental sensitivities" in the area.
"[It] states that the area is classified as irreplaceable... and it goes on to list each and every red data species found, of which there are over twenty-five.
"They state categorically that the department is not in favour of any development around Blaauwpan, which they consider to be a highly sensitive area."
These concerns were no longer valid under the current department, Barlow claimed.
Negotiations for the sale of the dam, within the greater Ekurhuleni municipal area, began in 2003.
Referring to minutes of a municipal meeting from 2005, Barlow questioned the Ekurhuleni metro's R2.9m grant-in-aid donation made to the African Hall of Fame Trust, for the construction of a museum at the dam.
"Six years later there is still no museum, and as far as we can ascertain, no money either... this raises serious questions about how the municipality allocates grant-in-aid funds and how they monitor the proper use of those funds."