Gupta mansions with indoor swimming pool and a cricket pitch back on sale for R32 million
Two multi-million rand South African mansions owned by the Gupta brothers, a trio of India-born businessmen at the centre of a corruption scandal that triggered the nation’s worst political and economic crisis since apartheid, are back on the market in Johannesburg.
The seven-bedroom home, complete with an indoor swimming pool, thatched outdoor entertainment area, mini cricket pitch, water features and a garden with endangered cycad plants, was listed on Wednesday.
It was listed alongside a neighbouring 11-bedroom house that boasts a beauty parlour, cinema lounge and rooftop terrace.
While the properties have asking prices of R10 million and R12 million, respectively, lower offers may be considered, online advertisements show.
The homes in Saxonwold, one of Johannesburg’s oldest and most affluent neighbourhoods, once belonged to a company linked to Atul, Rajesh and Ajay Gupta and form part of a compound that features in a scandal known locally as state capture.
A government-backed judicial inquiry that investigated graft involving more than 1,400 people and entities in 2018 heard that the brothers held clandestine meetings at the properties.
There, influential guests were offered kickbacks and even government positions to help the family and their associates influence government decisions and to secure contracts.
The listings come after a private sale of the homes last year fell through. At the time, the two properties, along with a neighbouring three-bedroom house, were sold for about 46% below their municipal value.
“We’ve been battling to find buyers due to the stigma associated with the properties, and because of the poor state they’re in,” said Kurt Knoop of Manci Knoop Financial Services.
The firm is the business-rescue practitioner for Confident Concept, the Gupta-linked company that owned the properties and entered into a local form of bankruptcy protection in 2018.
“But we have been talking to a couple of people and hope to have a sale soon.”
Proceeds from the sale of the properties will help settle creditors’ claims, he said.
An open house is scheduled to take place this weekend, with interested parties required to show identification and proof of funds before viewing, according to the listing.
The brothers fled to Dubai shortly before the ruling African National Congress forced Jacob Zuma to quit as president in 2018 to stem a loss of electoral support, partly due to his links to the family. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing.
Atul and Rajesh — wanted in South Africa on charges including money laundering and fraud, and sanctioned by both the US and UK governments — were arrested in the United Arab Emirates in 2022 after Interpol placed them on its most-wanted list.
In 2023, a UAE court denied South Africa’s extradition request, and the arrest warrant was cancelled.
South Africa provisionally withdrew its arrest warrant for Ajay in 2019.
7 Saxonwold Drive
5 Saxonwold Drive
