{"id":807358,"date":"2025-01-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=807358"},"modified":"2025-01-22T09:06:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T07:06:39","slug":"the-men-who-started-south-africas-most-successful-security-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/807358\/the-men-who-started-south-africas-most-successful-security-estate\/","title":{"rendered":"The men who started South Africa\u2019s most successful security estate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Midstream Estate is South Africa\u2019s most successful security estate, with its own schools, hospitals, shopping centres, restaurants, and churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four men\u2014Riaan Botma, Chris Smith, Jan Zeederberg, and Johan van Wyk\u2014made this incredible security town possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This group of entrepreneurs started with property development in Pretoria in 1995 through their company, Bondev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name Bondev stems from the French noun \u2018bon\u2019, meaning good, and \u2018dev\u2019, which is short for developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their first joint development was in Eldoraigne. After its success, Eldo Estates, Eldopark, and Eldoglen followed suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2000, Bondev embarked on its most ambitious project. It set out to build a fully-fledged and self-contained security town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It purchased a 1,300-hectare estate from the Erasmus family and officially established Midstream Estate in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, municipal and governmental red tape caused the project to be delayed by eighteen months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2003, machinery and equipment moved in, and the development of Midstream Estate started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outset, security was a key focus. It is protected by a 2.5m high palisade fence surrounded by a 1.8m wall with electric fencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space between the two fences is patrolled 24\/7, and the estate invested in numerous high-end technologies to ensure safety for its residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estate quickly gained popularity because of its exceptional security and the rapidly expanding amenities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the next two decades, Midstream Estate became the most successful security estate in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It features numerous residential estates in one, including Midstream Proper, Midfield, Midlands, Midstream Ridge, Midstream Heights, Midstream Meadows, and Midstream Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estate has its own retirement village, Retire@Midstream, with a frail care facility and a dementia facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offers parents a choice of three baby houses, three pre-primary schools, two primary schools, and a dual-medium high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a self-contained village, it has its own shopping centres, hospitals, churches, sporting facilities, and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurants inside the estate include Turn \u2019n Tender, Mugg & Bean, Salsa, Steers, Godfather, Lupa, Wimpy, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sports facilities include a 10-hole par three mashie golf course, tennis and squash courts, a cricket oval, an indoor swimming pool, and a gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midstream has many business parks that offer residents commercial and office space inside the estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also features Co-work @ Midstream, a modern shared workspace environment that offers companies and individuals a professional home for their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The estate has become very popular among people in Gauteng who are looking for a secure living environment with nearby facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand for properties in the estate has seen prices rise significantly over the last few years, outperforming the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent sales data shows that freehold units with yard sizes between 600m\u00b2 and 4,000 m\u00b2 are selling for between R3 million and R35 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sectional title units, ranging from 190 to 400 square metres, have been selling for between R2.5 million and R5.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Midstream co-founder Chris Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In June 2016, Chris Smith passed away after battling cancer. Apart from starting Midstream Estate, he was also a director of Midstream College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his success at Midstream Estate, Eldo Park, and Eldoglen, he was also behind the Royal Elephant Hotel and Forever Resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riaan Botma, a property developer since 1982, remains directly involved in Midstream Estate and continues to serve as a Bondev director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has lived in Midstream Estate since 2005 and served on the Midstream Homeowners\u2019 Association board from inception in 2002 until 2009 and again from 2015 until present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan Zeederberg also still lives in Midstream Estate and is involved in numerous aspects of running the estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also the driving force behind Midstream Estate\u2019s R200 million solar and battery backup system to protect against load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, not much information about Johan van Wyk is available, including whether he is still involved in Midstream Estate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Midstream Estate is South Africa\u2019s most successful security estate, with its own schools, hospitals, shopping centres, restaurants, and churches. Here are the men behind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":807363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[20617,20618,20619,20616],"class_list":["post-807358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-chris-smith","tag-jan-zeederberg","tag-johan-van-wyk","tag-riaan-botma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807365,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807358\/revisions\/807365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}