A huge mansion in the elite Cape Town suburb of Constantia that was seized from the Gupta family, originally from Uttar Pradesh, is now being offered for sale with a price tag of $1.1 million.
The property is part of assets worth $301m that were seized by the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa after it obtained an interim order to secure assets belonging to members of the Gupta family.
The family purchased the home in 2017 from Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The estate agents advertising the property said the house has been neglected for several years, thus requiring some attention.
“The home is in a state of disrepair after many years of neglect,” the advertisement says.
An aerial photo shows a large swimming pool covered in green algae, unkempt lawns and a thatched roof needing serious attention.
The advertisement for the Constantia house gives the size as 8,105 square metres, with seven bedrooms, six bathrooms and two garages. Constantia has some of the most expensive residential properties in South Africa.
There is also a separate and “generous” one-bedroom cottage on the site, as well as a guard house at the entrance.
The home was one of the several prestigious properties across South Africa that were owned by the Guptas family, who are now in self-exile in Dubai, with Indian-born brothers Rajesh and Atul Gupta awaiting extradition to South Africa.
They are wanted here on fraud and corruption charges, including allegedly siphoning off billions from state-owned enterprises, leaving the national electricity supplier Eskom and the public transport rail network Transnet crippled and unable to fund restoration and improvements.
The Gupta brothers are alleged to have used their closeness to ousted President Jacob Zuma to enable state capture.
Among the claims made at the Commission of Enquiry into State Capture were that ministers in government and heads of parastatal organisations were frequent visitors to the Gupta residence in Johannesburg, sometimes leaving with bags stuffed with money.
The Gupta family, originally from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, entered South Africa by setting up a shoe store in the early 1990s.
They soon expanded to include IT, media and mining companies, most of which have now been sold off or closed.
(PTI)
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