The Gupta compound is going on auction – can we finally bulldoze the bad taste?

Saxonwold has long been one of Joburg’s most genteel suburbs – all jacaranda-lined streets, heritage homes and an air of old-world propriety. It’s still the sort of neighbourhood where someone’s great-aunt might tut at hedge height violations.

It’s also the home of the decades-long apoplexy that happened when the Guptas moved in, and transformed their corner of it into a shrine to shiny surfaces and suspect taste.

Now, their infamous compound is going under the hammer – and if ever a “luxury” property screamed “money can’t buy taste”, it’s this one. News24 described it as “opulent”. It is not. It is obscene and gratuitous. Three houses are situated on the site: from an eight-bedroom faux-mansion with an indoor pool to a 17-en-suite fever dream (or rather, nightmare) of weird atriums and high-gloss finishes. There is a beauty salon and boma.

This is the poster child for what happens when ill-gotten gains meet zero design instinct – a shambolic, tacky bunker. A salon at home? The Guptas clearly weren’t planning to pop down to Sorbet with the mortals they were pulling one over. 

This aesthetic crime is a visual metaphor for everything the Guptas were up to: brash excess, no accountability, and a complete disregard for sense – or good sense. A place where ministers were allegedly bribed, influence was bought, and dinners were served with a side of corruption. In short, not so much a home as a headquarters for state capture.

To be clear, no-one’s saying that only Cape Dutch gables and Edwardian porches are welcome in Saxonwold. There’s room here – and across South Africa more broadly – for bold, contemporary architecture and design. In fact, we have many fine designers and architects building all kinds of innovative, deeply rooted and globally admired structures that speak to place and people. Their work would fit on that Saxonwold Drive plot perfectly.

So yes, this auction is about property. But it’s also a chance to hit reset on a really rubbish patch in our history. A moment to swap hollow excess for elegance, and build something that showcases the real substance of South Africa.

Here’s hoping the next owner tears it all down and starts again. With better plans, better taste, and better intentions in all arenas.