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Johannesburg - In an apparent hoax, the address for the South African Presidency was briefly listed as a premises in the plush residential area of Saxonwold, home of the controversial Gupta family, on Google Maps.
The faux address which read "Saxonwold Drive, Randburg" as the location for the South African Presidency had been changed back to “The Presidency Office” at the Union Buildings in Pretoria by Wednesday evening.
If Google Maps users typed “South African Presidency” into the app as a destination, the first result yielded was to the Saxonwold address.
Since late 2016, the Saxonwold area drew attention after former Eskom CEO, Brian Molefe’s cellphone tracking records, obtained by the Public Protector's investigators, indicated that Molefe was at or near the Guptas' Saxonwold, Johannesburg compound 19 times between August 5 and November 17 2015.
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s evidence resulted in an obscure response by Molefe, in which he said he often frequented a 'shebeen in Saxonwold'.
The misplaced joke – which he borrowed from a colleague – had been turned into the symbol of patronage and became the subject of countless internet memes, including its own Twitter account.
