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A luxury home paid for with Lottery money by actress Terry Pheto, star of Tsotsi and The Bold and the Beautiful, has been sold to an unidentified Johannesburg businessman for R3.9 million.
The house, which was subject to a preservation order obtained by the National Prosecuting Authority's Assets Forfeiture Unit, failed to attract any bids when it was put up for auction in early March.
Auctioneer Graham Renfrew, of Asset Auctions, confirmed that the house had been sold for R3.9m after it was offered to "interested parties" when it failed to attract any bids on the day it went under the hammer.
"We sent out 105 offers to purchase to interested parties and received eight offers, ranging from R1.7m to R3.9m. Of these offers eight, ranging from R3.5m to R3.9m, were forwarded to the curator [acting for the Special Investigating Unit] for consideration," said Renfrew.
The highest offer of R3.9m was accepted and the process of transferring the house to the new owner is now underway, he said.
The house in Bryanston, Johannesburg, was built for Pheto. The house and the land on which it stands were both paid for in cash using Lottery funds meant for "good causes". The total price tag was R5m.
Of that, R3m came from a dodgy R20m Lottery grant for an "initiation programme" paid to non-profit company Zibsimode in the 2017/2018 financial year.
An additional R1m used for the house came from a R10m grant paid to another dodgy non-profit, Life for Impact in the 21st Century, to pay for a youth awards ceremony.
But GroundUp revealed that Life for Impact had nothing to do with the awards and not a cent of the grant was used for the event, which was entirely funded and hosted by the National Youth Development Agency.
