Gauteng government pays R180k a month to rent school it sold for R600k

The Gauteng government has people scratching their heads, following a bizarre property deal involving a plot of land and the school built on it being sold off in 2006, and the province’s education department then paying dearly to rent it from the new owners.

The property on Beethoven Street in Duncanville, Vereeniging, in the Vaal is home to Phoenix High School Vereeniging, a former Afrikaans-medium, public, no-fee school, which caters to a vulnerable community.

Calculations reveal that the rental income, at the termination period of January 2026, would have earned the company at least R32 million from the provincial education department.

Deed records show that the property was sold for R600 000 in 2006 (the actual Deed of Transfer records that the actual sale is backdated from 2006 to 2001, with a 2022 property evaluation listing the property value at over R23-million.

Afriforum’s case

AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit claims to have gathered evidence, which The Citizen has also seen, that the land, including the school and its infrastructure, was sold to an entity which belongs to a member of the controversial Dockrat family, owners of the Sedgars group of companies, for a ‘paltry’ R600 000.

Though the land ownership was transferred in 2006, while the land was still occupied by Hoërskool HTS Vereeniging, the first lease between the GDE and Erf 4 & 6 Duncanville Vereeniging was only signed in 2013 after Phoenix High School was opened.

The lease was signed in November 2013, and included a settlement of R1-million for arrears (January to November rent) and then R110 000 per month, with annual 9% escalation.

The 2022 lease amount is R184 000 per month, with the School Governing Body’s (SGB) calculations based on actual rental records, and includes the future expenditure as per the escalation calculations, totalling R32-million.

The organisation could not find evidence that there was ever any lease for the use of the land while the property was still occupied by Hoërskool HTS Vereeniging.

According to documents in AfriForum’s possession, the property was transferred to the new owners in July 2006 and the lease with the education department was signed in August 2021.

School’s future uncertain

AfriForum claims to have information that land owners have completed all the necessary steps to develop the property into a business area, including the school’s only soccer fields.

Letters to the premier’s office and provincial department of education indicate futile attempts by the School Governing Body (SGB) and AfriForum to get answers on the future of the school.

Advocate Gerrie Nel, AfriForum’s private prosecutor, said the department has chosen to avoid exposure by adopting an ostrich approach of hiding their heads in the sand.

“Like us, you must be concerned that the government has already paid more than R22 million in rent for a school that was ostensibly given away,” Nel implored in a letter to former Gauteng premier David Makhura and education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, now premier.

Who are the Dockrats?

The Dockrat family are no strangers to controversial government deals, and were embroiled in allegations of working with then Free State premier Ace Magashule to pull the strings in a R9.5-million tender to supply soccer T-shirts and 20 000 blankets for the 2010 World Cup.

The Docrats denied that Magashule had any involvement in the deal, which they described as a “normal transaction”. 

In 2018, Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane also found that then Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula had accepted R300 000 from Sedgars for his 2016 Dubai family holiday. Mbalula claimed it was a loan which he had repaid.

In 2019, Investigative journalism unit amaBhungane reported that the Dockrat family-owned company was among those linked to Magashule and received several massive tenders.

According to the unit, Sedtrade (of which Sayed Dockrat is the sole director), a company linked to Magashule through Tsefay Hardware, a close corporation at which his son Tshepiso Magashule was a director, scored R1.47 billion in contracts in the Free State. The Docrats at the time denied that they benefitted from their “transparent” associations with politicians.

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Family ties

A company profile search reveals that Mohammed Essop Dockrat is one of the three active directors of the real estate company.

Sedgars, through its lawyers, denies ever owning the property, but Mohammed Essop Dockrat, the director of Erf 4 & 6 Duncanville Vereeniging lists his email address as having a sedgars.co.za domain.

Also, the company’s business address is listed as 2 Leeuwenhoek Street, Vereeniging, which is the same address as two other Dockrat businesses – Sedgars and Sedtrade.

Sedgars has denied any involvement with the school and denied ownership, despite sharing the same business address and the involvement of one of the Dockrat family who is clearly using the family’s company email address.

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“[Sedgars] has instructed our office to place on record that it is not nor has it ever been the owner of the property [housing Phoenix High High School …,” Raees Chothia, director of Raees Chothia Attorneys said in a letter.

Neither the premier’s office or the provincial education department responded to questions regarding the matter which were sent last week.