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Cape Town - A beautiful home at Rooi-Els in the Western Cape, purportedly owned by Leon Kirkinis, the former executive of Afrian Bank, is on the market for R60m.
“The [massive] home has been built to the highest standards and ecological sensitivity and was constructed to have the minimum impact on the surrounding environment”, said the advertisement of Acquire Africa property agents marketed on their website as a holiday home.
“The home is a combination of a luxury lifestyle in the heart of nature.”
Shares suspended
Both Tara Whiting and Marius Botha, the estate agents, didn’t react to calls made by Rapport and neither did Kirkinis return calls.
He has disappeared from the media spotlight since his resignation at the beginning of August, a few days before African Bank was placed under curatorship.
It appears the house has been marketed by Acquire since May.
African Bank’s share price has tumbled from above R12 at the beginning of May to 31c when shares were suspended.
The market received a shock on 2 May when the company announced in yet another trading update that it was facing huge losses.
Hard questions are being asked about African Bank’s management and how reckless lending led to the implosion.
The property agents’ website said the house of about 450m² on erf 115, is on 1.47h/a.
The Rooi-Els property valuation role shows erf 115 is owned by Upbeat Props 167.
Wine cellar
African Bank’s latest annual report to end September 2013 shows that Kirkinis is a director of Upbeat Properties 167. The registrar of companies indicates he has been a director of the company since 1999 and that he has resigned, but a date was not given.
The Sunday Times last week referred to the Upbeat Properties home of Kirkinis.
Rapport has discovered in the mean time that the house is on the market.
It has four en suite bedrooms and a garage for six cars. There are automatic blinds in front of the windows and automatic hydraulic shutters that cuts off the house from outside. There’s also a swimming pool, a jacuzzu, a wine cellar and a gymnasium.
Residents of the town were extremely upset when construction started on what they called a monstrosity in 2010.
The chairperson of Rooi-Els’s nature conservation area, Anuta Scholtz, said initially Kirkinis had been everyone’s hero.
They were upset because the erf had initially been zoned for the construction of a hotel – the one thing the Rooi-Els residents didn’t want. She said they preferred a quiet life without tarred roads and street lights.
“The next thing Mr Kirkinis bought the plot and he had it rezoned to a residential property. He was everyone’s hero.”
Things quieted down for quite a while until Kirkinis started a process of public participation and everyone was invited to inspect the plans.
He also instructed a comprehensive environmental impact study be undertaken, “which must have cost him a pretty penny.”
Scholtz said it would have been a plain single story building, not even visible from the sea.
House won award
The next thing we knew building started, after new plans had been submitted and approved.”
Then this “this architectural miracle” started rising up above the sand dunes”, said Scholtz.
The residents were powerless.
“I personally like the building, but it’s not in the right place. It’s too harsh for the area. It should have been in the city.”
Scholtz was not aware that the house was for sale.
The house and the interior was featured in the latest edition of Visi magazine.
Kirkinis was not identified.
The Johannesburg businessman was described as a maverick who apparently drew the concept of the house on a serviette in a Hermanus restaurant.
The house won an award from the South African Institute of Architects for its structural steel construction.
Another Rooi-Els resident said: “It’s the first thing you see when you drive from Gordon’s Bay to the area. It looks like either an airport building or a sport stadium”.
