APOLOGY

In this article “Father wants house from ‘bogus’ agent” (September 25, 2019), it was stated that Lucas Molobele acted as an estate agent when he sold a property in Soweto to Thokozani Mhlungu and his wife, while he was not registered as an estate agent at the time. The headline of the article also referred to Molobele as a “bogus” estate agent.

This is incorrect. Molobele, a property speculator, was the owner of the property and sold it to the Mhlungus as the seller, not as an estate agent. The Estate Agency Affairs Board ’s advice to Mhlungu, namely that Molobele “illegally” sold him the house, is therefore also incorrect.

It was further stated in the article that Mhlungu suspected that Ferhana Jada Attorneys, the transferring attorneys, “knew that Molobele was not a registered estate agent and was scamming unsuspecting consumers like him”. As it turns out, that suspicion was unfounded.

The Sowetan retracts statements to the effect that Molobele misrepresented himself as an estate agent and that he is a “bogus” agent who “illegally” sold a property to Mhlungu.

We also retract any suggestion that Ferhana Jada Attorneys were complicit in misconduct or “scamming” consumers, and apologise to both Molobele and attorney Ferhana Jada.

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