September 17, 2004

By Greg Ardé

A Stellenbosch businessman made the startling claim this week that he owned the land on which the coastal road between Durban and KwaDukuza was built, saying he wanted the government to buy it from him "for hundreds of millions of rands".

Although some have disputed his claims, Pierre Hough, who described himself as a business strategist, was determined to go ahead with them.

According to Hough, he is the chairman of La Lucia Property Investments Ltd, a company formed in 1968 by the sugar company Tongaat-Hulett.

He said its forerunner had been Natal Estates Ltd. The company had been formed when Anglo American bought Tongaat-Hulett. At the time, all Natal Estates land had been transferred into La Lucia Property Investments.

Included in this land, claimed Hough, was the road (known as Main Road 398, the M4 or Leo Boyd highway) between Durban and KwaDukuza.

In 1989, Hough said, he had bought a number of shelf companies, including La Lucia Property Investments, but for 10 years the company had been dormant with no directors.

Then, by chance, Hough had discovered the extent of his landholdings when someone had approached his company to buy land.

After a trip to the Deeds Office he had realised "there were substantial amounts of property ... much of it the road running between the border of the old Borough of Durban past Stanger".

Hough claimed the road was "set aside by conditions of establishment but never transferred to the state or expropriated".

He said he had spent five years investigating the issue, inspecting documents held by government departments.

Finally, after "failing to get the provincial Department of Transport to take the matter seriously", or to buy the land on which the road rests, Hough had decided to go public.

In a bizarre twist, Hough claimed that private ownership of the land on which the road had been built meant that laws applicable to motorists on public roads did not apply - because it was not a proclaimed road in the provincial road network.

Hough said the National Roads Agency, which operated the N2 toll road that ran for 30km on "his land", had undertaken to investigate the matter with a view to expropriating the land in lieu of a payout.

Contention

Another stretch of road under contention, claimed Hough, was one that ran through Moreland's Zimbali Coastal Resort.

Zimbali is in the process of a land-swop with the provincial authorities to move the road back up the hill so it can extend its housing estate around more hotels and a new golf course.

Neels Brink, the Resorts Director of Morelands, said: "We have done our research in the Deeds Office and we did our homework before the land swop, and we are satisfied there is no substance to Mr Hough's claims.

"We are satisfied with the integrity of the deeds registry system and whole system of land ownership in South Africa, which ranks among the best in the world. So it's unlikely that a land ownership issue as serious as this could have occurred."

Hough agreed that his story was "mind-boggling", but he said his asset, worth "a fortune - hundreds of millions of rands", was being used while he was getting nothing.

Hough declined to name shareholders of La Lucia Property Investments.

According to Chris Hlabisa, the Chief Director of KZN's Transport Department, a meeting between officials and other stakeholders has been scheduled for October 1.

"We hope the matter will be resolved then. Over a period of time there have been different views expressed by different stakeholders on this matter. Mr Hough's concerns are noted," said Hlabisa.

The National Roads Agency could not immediately confirm this.

Meanwhile, The Mercury has spoken to Malcolm Dinkele, a Durban-based land surveyor, who said that in 1999 Hough had commissioned him to do some work regarding his claim to land in La Lucia. Dinkele said he was never paid for the work.

Regarding Hough's claim, he said: "He has a case to lay claim to some side roads in La Lucia by virtue of the fact that he owns that company. He sort of has a claim, but he is going about it very bombastically."

According to a law firm representing the eThekwini municipality, Hough was also involved in litigation with the city over land he alleged he was entitled to, although details could not be established by the time of going to press.