I abandoned R100million plus tourism investments in Mpumalanga to avoid assassination

Fred Daniel's is a typical story of how inanities and corruption among some government officials can cost a province huge investments (foreign and local), jobs and development. Daniel, a conservationist and tourism entrepreneur, bought farms in the Badplaas area of Mpumalanga in 2002 to establish a Big Five game reserve. He invested 100s of millions of rands in the area, boosting eco-tourism, and more companies such as Dubai World were also keen to invest. However, mobs supported by former Mpumalanga agriculture MEC (later deputy president of RSA), David Mabuza, began harassing and intimidating Daniel to leave the area. At that time, Daniel had exposed a huge land scam whereby a middleman, in cahoots with Land Claims Commission officials, were buying farms and selling them to the Commission at highly inflated prices for land reform purposes. Land claims in the area were later found to be fictitious (the claimants had no previous history of having been forcefully removed by apartheid laws) due to Daniel's expose. This did not sit down well with beneficiaries of the land reform corruption. Mobs were organised to march on Daniel's property, he was intimidated and his fences were cut. Police were instructed never to avail themselves. Officials in the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) were also roped in to refuse to issue animal permits to Daniel and was often accused of trumped-up violation of environmental law. Fed up, Daniel instituted a R1.5 bn lawsuit against various government departments in 2010. He eventually caved in and left Badplaas in 2019 when attempts were made to trap and frame him for perjury. One woman, claiming to be Thandeka Mabuza and niece of Mabuza who was staying in his Bryanston house, alleged that she had seen a hit list with Daniel's name. Later, 'Thandeka' was exposed as an impostor and that R750 000 was paid into her account after making the wild claims. 'Thandeka' soon disappeared on Daniel after making a sworn statement. This was the last straw for Daniel because crime intelligence officials were involved in creating 'Thandeka' and he realised that he was close to being another statistic of assassinations in the province. Fifteen years later, the Pretoria High Court has awarded Daniel R306.1 million in damages, and his legal costs exceeding R100 million.