Joburgâs Santarama Miniland âhijackedâ for private gain

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The Hillbrow Tower, Max the Gorilla and Michael Jackson are the sole remnants inside Johannesburgâs iconic Santarama Miniland. Outside, a towering statue of Jan van Riebeeck still stands guard over what was once one of the cityâs biggest tourist attractions, built to fund tuberculosis care for the South African National Tuberculosis Association (Santa).

Today, the municipal-owned property at Wemmer Pan, south of Joburg, has been hijacked. The City of Joburg appears to have no interest in discovering who has taken it over or who is collecting rent from what has now been turned into a neat, well-kept, private picnic and function venue â even though local ward councillors and former Santa officials have continuously brought the hijacking to the attention of various city officials.

Gone are the meticulous miniature buildings that once delighted generations of schoolchildren and tourists â the scale replicas of the Union Buildings, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and Gold Reef City mine dumps. Gone too is the Dromedaris, the iconic full-scale replica ship on the lake where visitors could go for rides, alongside the mini steam train sets, the cable cars and the miniature harbour that once formed the heart of the park.

The grounds have now been taken over by private individuals who put the premises out to let as an event venue â charging thousands of rands for parties, corporate functions and picnics while the municipality receives zero revenue for rent, water or electricity services consumed on site.

City admits total loss of control

While the heritage has been gutted, commercial exploitation on the municipal land is thriving â entirely off the Cityâs books.

The Joburg Property Company (JPC) has officially admitted that it has no valid lease agreement for the historic site at 183 Rosettenville Road in Glenesk, confirming that private operators run commercial ventures on city-owned land while paying zero rental income to the public purse.

In an official written response to Daily Maverick queries, JPC confirmed the Cityâs complete lack of contractual control over the asset. Asked whether a valid, legally executed lease agreement exists, JPC stated plainly: âThere is currently no valid legal lease agreement in place between JPC and the tenant.â

Furthermore, despite confirming that the site is owned by the City and managed by JPC, the municipal entity admitted it has taken no formal legal steps to halt the unauthorised commercial exploitation or evict the occupiers, adding that JPC âhas not issued any legal notices and will conduct a site inspection to determine the current occupancy of the propertyâ.

When asked about specific operational and compliance failures at the site, JPC offered a uniform wall of non-answers:

On whether municipal utility accounts for water and electricity are in arrears: âJPC will investigate the matter.â

On whether venue hire fees, event levies or sub-tenant rents are being remitted to the public purse: âJPC will investigate the matter.â

On whether the site holds required Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) certificates, noise exemptions, or Joint Committee on Events (JCE) permits: âJPC will investigate the matter.â

On the unauthorised commercial car wash and residential sub-tenants: âJPC will investigate the matter.â

Operator lawyers up

In an effort to secure a formal right of reply, written questions were sent to Thembi Thembisile Buthelezi, who operates private event bookings, venue hire and site administration at Santarama Miniland.

Buthelezi agreed to meet journalists at Daily Maverickâs offices in Johannesburg. However, upon arrival, she refused to address any substantive questions on the lack of a lease, the collection of venue hire fees, or the unauthorised sub-leasing of municipal land to third parties.

Citing the Cityâs own acknowledgement that an investigation had been launched, Buthelezi refused to comment on the record, stating that responding would count against her.

âWe therefore cannot reply to your questions because it could interfere with the Cityâs investigation,â said Buthelezi.

This stance was echoed by her lawyer Prince Mafu, who reiterated to Daily Maverick that because municipal authorities were investigating the matter, his client could not interfere with the process by answering media queries.

Daily Maverick has established that Buthelezi is listed as the sole director of a private company called Santarama Delight and Sipho Beauty Spa (Pty) Ltd, registered on 6 January 2022.

The company record gives both its legal and postal address as the Santarama Miniland site. Buthelezi is therefore using a City of Joburg-owned property address as her company address.

Commercial cash cow

Despite the operatorâs refusal to answer, active digital booking channels and on-site operations reveal a highly lucrative private enterprise operating completely off the grid.

The grounds attached to Wemmer Pan are marketed for luxury wedding receptions, corporate functions, âSip and Paintâ social evenings, pre-school graduations and music video shoots. Packages range from R1,500 for basic party setups up to R55,000 for full-day luxury wedding and venue-shutdown packages. Bookings and payments are routed through private cell numbers and personal email accounts.

Alongside private function packages, the occupiers collect regular rent from a suite of unauthorised sub-tenants:

A local church holding weekly services on the grounds;

A commercial car wash drawing directly from municipal water;

Residential tenants paying rent to live in the former security tower.

These commercial gatherings, church services and high-density events allegedly operate without verified Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) certificates, noise exemptions or Joint Committee on Events (JCE) permits from the City.

Local Ward 57 Councillor Faeeza Chame, outraged over the Cityâs ongoing failure to protect municipal assets in Region F, revealed that repeated site visits with officials had produced no enforcement action.

âI have brought out City officials here on numerous occasions to inspect the site, including members of the Office of the Speaker. I speak often to Thembi [Buthelezi], who repeatedly assures me she has a valid lease, but she is yet to produce one.

âFurthermore, I have seen suspicious activity on site, including the laying of new water pipes through the grounds, which I am certain have not been approved by the City. There also is electricity which is almost certainly illegally connected and not being billed.

âIt is completely unacceptable that municipal land is being hijacked and commercialised for private profit right under the Cityâs nose, while municipal services and heritage crumble,â Chame said.

âHow can a private operator run commercial events, charge up to R55,000, and run a car wash without a lease, without utility billing and without safety permits? JPC and the City must take immediate legal action to reclaim this property and account for every cent stolen from the public.â

History of Santarama and the physical hijacking

Santarama Miniland was originally established in the early 1970s as a major educational tourist attraction and primary fundraising vehicle for Santaâs tuberculosis care programmes. For decades, gate entry fees and event revenues directly subsidised medical treatment and bed space across South Africa.

However, a former Santa manager who spent more than a decade with the organisation, speaking on condition of anonymity after previously facing physical attacks for raising the alarm, confirmed that the property was forcibly taken from the organisation as funding collapsed.

âSanta was built on public and private donations to fight TB,â the former employee said.

âIn the post-1994 period, as government began centralising health services â which included integrating specialised TB care directly into general public clinics and hospitals â state funding started drying up.

âWe started running out of money, and the buildings and miniatures fell into disrepair. We actually had to dismantle a lot of them ourselves because we had no funds to maintain or fix them â many werenât all stolen overnight; they simply broke down from weather and neglect.â

The former insider revealed that as Santaâs national administration began to fracture, an individual attached to a private security detail linked to the hijacker of Charles Hurwitz Hospital, Santaâs flagship 800-bed specialist tuberculosis facility in Soweto, stepped into the vacuum at Santarama.

âAn individual attached to a security detail at one of our other hijacked properties started moving in and taking over the venue bookings while excluding Santa entirely. After the hospital was hijacked, I moved to Santaâs head office in Bedfordview while trying to oversee Santarama. The hijacker, known simply as Sipho, simply moved into the park and took control.â

While former Santa management identified Sipho as the person who physically seized the grounds during the administrative collapse, current commercial bookings and venue administration are managed by Thembi Buthelezi. Daily Maverick was unable to independently verify the precise legal or personal relationship between Buthelezi and the initial illegal occupier, though source accounts allege an ongoing association.

The source explained that despite desperate appeals to municipal authorities, the City ignored every warning.

âWe called the City in many times, but we were constantly ignored.â

The broader Santa institutional collapse

The seizure of Santarama Miniland was part of a wider institutional collapse that devastated Santaâs Johannesburg property portfolio between 2011 and 2012.

During this period, the Charles Hurwitz Hospital was thrown into chaos as state subsidies were disrupted and internal governance broke down, leaving TB patients without basic supplies and staff unpaid before health authorities were forced to step in.

This administrative vacuum was triggered when Durban businessman Sateesh Isseri, claiming to be a doctor, approached the struggling healthcare NGO offering operational management, said the former employee. Instead of stabilising the organisation, court records show Isseri moved to transfer Santaâs property portfolio and moveable assets into personal and private corporate names.

In late 2012, the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg handed down a R13-million judgment against Isseri in favour of Santa to recover siphoned funds, while the Sheriff of the Court formally evicted Isseri and his associates from Santaâs Bedfordview headquarters. Parallel criminal investigations by the Hawks and the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) culminated in Isseriâs 2013 arrest over a R6.2-million Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) medical equipment fraud.

Efforts to trace Isseri for comment were unsuccessful, as his former business entities have been deregistered and previous legal representatives no longer act on his behalf.

While Isseri was removed through the courts, the structural damage to Santaâs governance was permanent. In the chaos and subsequent abandonment of the NGOâs administrative structures, the security personnel who had taken physical control of 183 Rosettenville Road remained on site.

Fourteen years after the initial fallout, the City of Johannesburg has yet to issue a single legal notice to reclaim its land â leaving a piece of Johannesburgâs public heritage to operate as an unbilled, unpermitted private goldmine. DM

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.