The Hawks are invest­ig­at­ing fraud alleg­a­tions linked to a pro­posed R4bn redevel­op­ment of the aban­doned Fish River Resort near Port Alfred, months after investors pub­licly prom­ised to trans­form the site into a lux­ury tour­ism des­tin­a­tion that would cre­ate jobs for local res­id­ents.

The invest­ig­a­tion fol­lows mount­ing con­trac­tual dis­putes, alleg­a­tions over miss­ing pay­ments and ques­tions sur­round­ing proof-of-funds doc­u­ments linked to the pro­posed $250m (R4bn) invest­ment project, reports the Daily Dispatch.

In Novem­ber, invest­ment com­pany Ezamat­shawe and its pur­por­ted US-based part­ner, Jok­tel, hos­ted a sod-turn­ing cere­mony at the former Fish River Sun resort, where ambi­tious plans were unveiled to refur­bish the aban­doned prop­erty.

The developers said they inten­ded expand­ing the 126 room hotel to 250 rooms, revamp­ing the Gary Player-designed golf course and build­ing a water park at the site. The project also prom­ised jobs for local res­id­ents, includ­ing former resort employ­ees. The facil­ity was to trade as Jok­tel Fish River.

The resort prop­erty is owned by the Prud­hoe Amagqu­nukh­webe Trust. This fol­lows a suc­cess­ful R240m land claim set­tle­ment final­ised in 2024.

But within weeks, the devel­op­ment became embroiled in legal dis­putes and com­pet­ing claims over con­trol of the site.

In Decem­ber, developer Xol­iswa Daku of the Daku Group secured an inter­dict in the Eastern Cape High Court (Makhanda) pre­vent­ing Ezamat­shawe and Jok­tel from car­ry­ing out renov­a­tions or con­struc­tion work at the resort.

Both groups had signed com­pet­ing con­tracts with the trust giv­ing them rights to develop the resort.

Des­pite the court order, construction work allegedly con­tin­ued at the prop­erty. At the centre of the latest dis­pute is Port Alfred-based con­struc­tion com­pany Top Rock Aggreg­ate Group, which claims it signed a R90m con­tract with Jok­tel-linked entit­ies in Janu­ary for land­scap­ing and civil works at the resort.

Com­pany dir­ector Marileze Rud­man alleged her com­pany was instruc­ted to pay R2m upfront to Vuy­okazi Batana for dis­tri­bu­tion to mem­bers of the local com­munity in what was described as a ‘token of good­will’.

‘We paid the R2m and they said the com­munity is happy, only to later find out that the com­munity didn’t get a cent,’ Rud­man alleged.

According to the Daily Dispatch, she claimed the pay­ment was one of sev­eral issues that raised con­cerns about the legit­im­acy of the project. A com­mit­tee mem­ber linked to the com­munity trust also alleged res­id­ents never received any pay­ment.

In Feb­ru­ary another con­tractor, LIC Elec­trical Projects, had also accused the developers of non­pay­ment of R2.1m. The com­pany was con­trac­ted to do demoli­tion work and install elec­trical infra­struc­ture.

Pro­vin­cial Hawks spokes­per­son Ndiphiwe Mhlak­uvana said yesterday a fraud case linked to the project was under invest­ig­a­tion. Batana declined to com­ment.

Prud­hoe com­munity trust chair Wilmot Magopeni said the trust was review­ing its legal options, but stressed the trust was not involved in the Hawks invest­ig­a­tion itself.

Daku said her com­pany had been unable to take con­trol of the prop­erty des­pite obtain­ing the court inter­dict against Ezamat­shawe and Jok­tel, blam­ing divi­sions within the trust for delays.

Full Daily Dispatch report