The Nigerian leader of an End Times evangelical church says he has bought the Good Hope Centre following an auction, but the city is keeping mum for now on exactly who cast the winning bid.

The hammer went down on the domed exhibition hall at R135m last week.

The city pushed ahead with the controversial disposal of 53 municipal properties, placing them under the hammer through its appointed service provider, Claremart Group. 

New24 reports that the move has triggered sharp criticism from opposition parties and civic organisations, who are gearing up for a showdown over the future of public land in the metro.

The portfolio included sites in Century City, Upper Canterbury Street in Gardens, Atlantis Industrial, Mitchells Plain, Wynberg, Bellville and Clifton – but it was the Good Hope Centre in the CBD that drew the most attention.

In recent years, it fell into dereliction and will reportedly require hundreds of millions of rands in renovation.

Nevertheless, a property developer who spoke to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity described R135m as an ‘extraordinarily good price’ for a commercial property of this size and history on the foreshore.

‘For perspective, much smaller 4 800m² mixed-use buildings in the area have listed for R125m,’ the developer said.

The Good Hope Centre is more than five times that size. The city initially described the auction as ‘successful’ and announced on social media that it had ‘successfully auctioned off 53 city-owned properties, including the iconic Good Hope Centre’.

The Daily Voice which first linked the Good Hope Centre purchase to Pastor John Anosike.

It reported that Anosike’s fellow pastor, Thelma Lewis, had posted on social media: ‘Today has marked a day of victory for the church and Pastor John Anosike. The Good Hope Centre is a gate in Cape Town, and the church has taken their position at the gate of the city. February is declared a month of victory.’ 

In response to questions from DM yesterday, the city seemed to walk back some of its previous definitiveness around the auction, saying: ‘The city has neither accepted bids for any of the sites as yet, nor has the validity of the bids been confirmed as it is necessary to first conduct detailed vetting and due diligence in the coming weeks.’

The city also said: ‘Regarding the Good Hope Centre in particular, should it be established that a qualifying bid has been received, this will be vetted in detail to ensure that the bidder complies fully with the requirements’ – which include heritage restrictions.'

Full Daily Maverick report

Full News24 report