The ultra-secure estate in South Africa with its own schools, shopping centres, hospitals and churches

From its own hospitals, baby care facilities, schools, old age homes with frail care, and memorial gardens, the residents of this security village truly have no reason to leave its heavily guarded walls. 

Midstream Estate has developed from a security village to a full-blown exclusive town with its own schools, medical centres, malls, and churches. 

The residents of the estate are insulated from issues that plague most South Africans, including loadshedding, crime, and under-resourced hospitals. 

Developed by the Bondev group in 2003, consisting of Riaan Botma, Chris Smith, Jan Zeederberg, and Johan van Wyk, the community is located between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

The Bondev group began developing property in Pretoria in 1995. This included the development of Eldoraigne, Eldo Estates and Eldo Park. 

The ground on which Midstream Estate now stands was originally owned by the Erasmus Family. The group purchased the land in 2001. 

The development of the estate only began in 2003, after 14 months of red tape was resolved with local government. 

The 1,300-hectare estate is surrounded by a 50-km-long, 5-metre-wide wall, with electric fencing and razor wire, and is monitored 24 hours a day through CCTV cameras. 

Each vehicle that enters the property is monitored using number plate recognition, and every person is monitored through biometric and facial recognition technology. 

The town even has its own helicopter that patrols the area and is on standby for security incidents. 

On the inside of the heavily protected village, Midstream consists of smaller estates, such as Midstream Heights, Midstream Meadows, and Midstream Ridge.

Midstream has its own Electricity Supply Services (MES), equipped with its own solar farm and battery energy storage system (BESS), and residents who opt in to the service are not subject to loadshedding up to stage 3.

“When Eskom power goes off, streetlights stay on, and the gate houses and security systems are energised at a far lower and more reliable rate than with generators,” Bondev explains.

No crime, no loadshedding

The estate’s medical facilities, shopping centres, schools, offices, and retirement home never need to be concerned about losing power, being directly supplied and managed by the estate.

Residents can choose between three baby houses and three pre-primary schools for children, as well as two parallel-medium primary schools with 900 learners each.

Midstream College High School was established over 15 years ago and has a 100% pass rate as well as standout achievements in sport.

For medical care, Midstream Mediclinic Hospital features many specialists and is connected to Midstream Hill Medical Park, with an oncology and radiation centre, a nuclear medicine practice, dialysis facility, and pathology laboratories. 

The Cure Day Hospital is a step-down centre full of general doctors, pharmacists, bio-keneticists, a dental practitioner, and physiotherapists. 

The Evexia Midstream Mental Health Facility is the newest addition to the estate’s medical facilities. 

Residents don’t have to leave the estate to buy groceries, visit restaurants, go to beauty salons, or fuel up on petrol, with all of these facilities on hand. 

The estate has its own golf course and hosts a weekly Parkrun. The village includes a tennis club, a bowls club, as well as photography, chess, cycling, and athletics clubs. 

Every house in the estate is equipped with high-speed fibre internet. Five Christian churches serve the midstream community from within its walls.

With all of these facilities established, developers Bondev say they are committed to consistently growing and improving the estate in the future. 

Residential properties in Midstream are currently selling for anywhere between R3 million and R20 million.

With its luxurious mansions and escape from service delivery failures, the estate is home to several high-profile individuals.

This includes South African DJ and music producer Master KG. Additionally, Alfred Sigudhla, a kingpin in the looting of South Africa’s lottery, bought a mansion in the estate with money siphoned from lottery grants. The property has now been frozen by the special tribunal. 

Additionally, two of the estate’s developers, Riaan Botma and Jan Zeederberg, live within the walls of the estate they built.

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