Exclusive Pretoria property to be expropriated

pretoria businessman rashid aboobaker, the last private citizen in the exclusive bryntirion estate, must move. the high-security estate is close to the official presidential residence mahlamba ndlopfu, and the homes of cabinet ministers.

the supreme court of appeal has dismissed aboobaker's attempt to stop the minister of public works from expropriating his home.

what remains to be settled now is how much he will be paid out.

aboobaker's home is in dumbarton road, alongside the enclosed bryntirion estate.

the property was previously government-owned, according to court documents, but was sold in 1993.

the government changed and aboobaker's business, erf 16 bryntirion (pty) ltd, bought it in 1997, after it was advertised for sale on the open market.

it was zoned for government use at the time, but aboobaker's business was granted permission by the pretoria council to rezone it as a guest house, although it was only ever used as a family home.

in 2004 a bond of r20 million was registered against the property and a substantial house was built on it.

then the government decided it wanted the property back.

in september 2005 the department of public works told aboobaker it would buy the property at market value.

the department said that if it did not buy the property, it would have a detrimental impact on the security planning for the estate as a whole.

it wanted to cordon off the entire estate for security purposes, but could not unless it owned aboobaker's property too.

but the businessman said he had "absolutely no intention of selling the property" .

however, he offered to co-operate to ensure the security of bryntirion estate was not compromised.

officials said they would expropriate the property and the parties ended up in court.

the minister of justice told the pretoria high court that just putting up a fence around aboobaker's house wasn't good enough, as the house would be at the entrance to the estate.

it thus could be used for "setting up of surveillance equipment... to monitor all traffic movements in and out of the bryntirion estate as well as of security methods, timing, etc, without the knowledge of estate security personnel; housing of unwanted persons on the premises who might intend to commit acts of sabotage; setting up a control point from which threatening acts such as ambushes and physical attacks could be launched on to the estate; and setting up of equipment to jam communications to the estate".

in january 2008 the minister sent an expropriation notice to aboobaker, offering r7.6m in compensation.

in october last year, the high court dismissed aboobaker's action to stop the expropriation. and last week the supreme court of appeal dismissed his appeal.