Property

Inside the dark and spooky shopping centre in Pretoria that is becoming a ghost mall

Bianke Neethling • 10 June 2026

Daily Investor recently visited the Zambezi Mall in Pretoria, now known as the Tshwane China Shopping Mall, and found that most of its shops are empty.

The mall’s owner said its re-tenanting and repositioning is “well underway”, with positive results expected.

However, a community representative told Daily Investor that the mall is an “eyesore”, and concerns are growing that it might become a complete ghost mall, which will open up the door for criminality or vagrants seeking shelter in the building.

Daily Investor’s visit showed that the mall’s interior appears to be in decent condition, though most of its shops are empty. The mall’s exterior receives far less upkeep, with plants growing wild and driveways becoming overgrown.

Zambezi Mall, developed by Capicol, officially opened its doors in 2010, with an estimated value of R1 billion.

When it first opened, Zambezi Mall boasted 40 shops, including well-known names like SPAR, TOPS, and News Cafe.

Sharemax bought the Zambezi Mall from Capicol for R930 million, with investors providing half of that money.

However, it proved to be a failure, with shops in the mall closing mere months after launch due to a lack of visitors.

Within six months of opening its doors, forensic auditor André Prakke said the Zambezi Mall was almost worthless.

Construction of the mall was halted in the same year it opened, when the Reserve Bank found that Sharemax’s funding model contravened the Banks Act.

Following this finding, the Sharemax scheme collapsed, leaving thousands of investors out of pocket and many properties in limbo.

This is when Nova Property Group stepped in, with plans to resolve the problems associated with Sharemax and salvage some of its properties, including Zambezi Mall.

Shortly after Nova took over, Zambezi Mall was tenanted by an Oriental City on a head lease basis, changing its name to Tshwane China Shopping Mall.

According to Nova, this saw footfall at the mall increase drastically, aided by extensive marketing campaigns.

However, based on Daily Investor’s visit and feedback from the surrounding community, this turnaround did not last.

An eyesore

Dehan Harmse, a VF Plus representative in Tshwane Ward 87, where Tshwane China Shopping Mall is located, told Daily Investor that the community considers the shopping centre an “eyesore”.

This is because the mall is mostly empty and is “in a bad state from the outside and inside”.

“Furthermore, there is a growing concern that the mall might become a complete ghost mall, which will open up the door for criminality or vagrants seeking shelter in the building,” he said.

Harmse said he has not been engaged by the mall’s management on developments regarding the centre, but would welcome any engagement.

“We, as the VF Plus, would want the mall to be an attraction in the area, and we want it to give an economic boost to the area,” he said.

“We would also want to see the management engage more with the community of Ward 87 with any development plans, as it is the community of Ward 87 that will mostly be affected by any decisions made by mall management on further developments regarding the mall.”

Daily Investor reached out to Nova Property Group for more information regarding its plans for Tshwane China Shopping Mall, but did not receive a response.

According to its website, the process of re-tenanting and repositioning the shopping centre is “well underway”, and “positive results are expected”.

Regarding Sharemax, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) recently announced that it is moving closer to finalising its long-running Nova-Sharemax investigation, which started in 2020.

Following complaints from investors and brokers, the CIPC launched an investigation into Nova PropGrow Group Holdings, which forms part of Nova Property Group.

In early 2021, the CIPC issued a notice for the company to prove why it should be allowed to trade, and received what it described as an “unsatisfactory response”.

This response prompted the CIPC to issue a Compliance Notice in October 2021, demanding proof that Nova PropGrow would not be financially distressed by February 2022.

A second Compliance Notice was issued in July 2022, ordering a temporary halt to Nova PropGrow’s business activities and prohibiting the company from selling any immovable property.

In its latest statement, released in early June 2026, the CIPC said its investigation has reached a “legal turning point”, and it expects the National Director of Public Prosecutions to intervene and pursue legal recourse.

In the meantime, uncertainty persists regarding the future of properties such as Tshwane China Shopping Mall and Villa Mall.

The photos below show the current state of the Zambezi Mall/Tshwane China Shopping Mall, captured during Daily Investor’s visit in early June.