South Africa

300-year-old South African wine farm on sale for R180 million

Bloomberg • 4 March 2026

A historic South African wine farm linked to a former politician and anti-apartheid activist is set for auction this month, with brokers seeking bids of at least R180 million.

Bloemendal Wine Estate in the country’s Cape Winelands, a region known as the Napa Valley of Africa, will go on sale as an operating and profitable business on 25 March, according to bid package prepared by Rawson Auctions.

The 238-hectare holding includes restaurants, a winery, a wine-tasting room, a manor house, stables and conference facilities, the document showed.

Bloemendal dates back more than 300 years, originally supplying Dutch East India Company ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope with fresh produce.

Today, it’s known for award-winning wines made from varietals including chenin blanc, chardonnay, pinotage and cabernet sauvignon.

Over the years, its owners have included a company founded by Tokyo Sexwale, a liberation-struggle icon who was jailed for opposing White-minority rule on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, off the coast of Cape Town.

Sexwale went on to become the first democratically elected premier of Gauteng, the province that’s home to South Africa’s commercial hub of Johannesburg, in 1994.

He left politics four years later and amassed a fortune in business, including through investments in mining. Its unclear who currently owns the farm.

The auction comes after an attempt to sell the estate last year collapsed. Brokers now require bidders to submit offers with proof of funds of at least R200 million as well as verified identity and tax-registration documents prior to the auction.

A non-refundable deposit amounting to 5% of the purchase price is payable on acceptance on an offer to purchase, with the balance due within 14 days.

In the late 1990s, Sexwale — along with current President Cyril Ramaphosa — was seen as a potential, if long-shot, candidate to succeed Nelson Mandela. In the end, Thabo Mbeki became the second democratic-era leader.