There has been an increase in fraudulant land sales and the government has made an appeal to South Africans to please be very careful when buying open plots of land.
Once a “sale” has gone through and the money has been paid over to the “seller” who actually does not own the land, it is very seldom that the buyer gets the money back.
According to the government, the buyer of such lands will be evicted from the land and will be charged fees for occupying the land.
If the sale of the land seems to not be taking the usual and safe route of a normal sale then something is up and you should report the seller to the police to avoid being charged yourself.
This type of sale is happening mostly in the rural areas and in areas housing shacks.
The buyer “buys” a piece of land that actually belongs to the government and then erects their shack on the property before having it torn down for illegally occupying the land that does not belong to them.