This R250-million house is part of a gated community called Steyn City that has been planted next to the township of Diepsloot in between JHB and Pretoria.

The initial phase costs R6-billion.

Eventually, it’ll host 11 000 residences, sports facilities, a private hospital, two private schools,a  retirement village and a number of office parks. Half the estate will be a park which will include a 42km running track.

One way to escape crime is to build a city you never have to leave.

It’s just a bit odd that the businessman behind it, Douw Steyn, uses the word “ubuntu” … maybe that’s his version of a possible 11,000 maids and 3,000 gardeners getting jobs. However, criticism and fun aside, Steyn deserves credit for vision and investing his wealth in South Africa.

A bigger point that has been made by many commentators is that, when looking at this luxury house, Jacob Zuma got a raw deal with Nkandla which cost almost the same. Then, again, the basement below (that looks like a ballroom) may house 33 private cars but it doesn’t include a chicken run, a fire pool or a kraal.

Steyn City claims to have created 9,641 jobs so far, has started a skills centre and developed underutilised veld areas at 3 schools into sporting facilities. Nkandla achieved even more… but in the opposite direction. We became a worldwide joke whilst our politics destabilised into us losing perspective. Like awkward categorisations such as blacks and whites, the poor and rich, we became pro-Zuma or anti-Zuma at the expense of all else. We became blind. We became hysterical. We lost our reason and, in doing so, for a while, we lost our democracy.

There is rarely good and evil in politics, just evil manipulation of the Public mind.

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