A Story of Community Good Turned into a Legal Nightmare

What started as a beautiful story of continued community improvement has again become a shocking case of corruption, intimidation, and abuse of power. Same corrupt players, new game plan.

We need your support to fight back.

The Good We've Done

Throughout 2025, Truffles on the Park has been a catalyst for positive change in our community. Working alongside residents and local partners, we've transformed our precious neighborhood Park into a safe, beautiful space for families and friends. Our contributions include:

1. Safety improvements: Automatic traffic boom, new parking markings, and solar-powered pathway lighting (together with Metropolis Apartments)
2. Children's facilities: A fully enclosed playground with slides, seesaw, balancing beam, sand pit, and toddler gym area
3. Recreation spaces: Giant chess board with evening lighting, swing park with friendship swings
4. Green initiatives: 32 trees planted along Linden Road, and even more indigenous trees with JCPZ
5. Coming soon: Self-contained public toilet facilities and a family-friendly kiosk

Removing a Dangerous Hazard

In May 2025, City Parks conducted a safety inspection and identified a serious hazard: the derelict dangerous structure and a 4m deep water filled cavity, all remains of old balloon operations abandoned since 2014. Due to budget constraints, they asked us to help remove this dangerous structure.

We acted to protect our community:

• Secured the area with fencing
• Recyclers removed the hazardous steel structure (donated)
• Filled the dangerous water-filled cavity below (with help from Metropolis/Barrow Construction)
• Created a safe tiled area where families now play
• City Parks requested this removal. Our Ward 91 Councillor was informed. We followed proper procedures.

Then Came the Retaliation

In June 2025, directors of Truffles on the Park were confronted by Sandton SAPS with a shocking accusation: a R3,000,000 charge of malicious damage and theft filed by the liquidated balloon operators who abandoned the structure years ago.

The key players in this scheme:

• Francis Chikasha: The malicious force leading the charge 
• Elvis Stanley Nkuna: Director of the liquidated company (Mushroom Park Activations), previously implicated in a R500 million PPE scandal
• Councillor Andrew Steward (Ward 91): Despite being informed by City Parks about the removal, he chose to support these corrupt individuals and instigated the criminal case

The Harassment Campaign

The directors have now made three expensive and stressful court appearances:

• First visit: Wasted, only to be assigned to another court
• Second visit: Wasted, postponed due to "photocopy capacity"
• Third visit: Received a 249-page docket filled with lies, fabrications, duplications, and bizarrely, two manuals on operating helium balloons
• The next court date: November 17, 2025

Human Rights Violation

During the second court visit, the Sandton SAPS investigating officer unlawfully detained the directors and their legal counsel in holding cells beneath the courthouse, demanding fingerprints and DNA samples as ransom for their release. This is textbook intimidation and harassment paid for by Francis Chikasha and his cronies.

Why This Matters

This isn't just about one park or one business. This is about:

• Community contributors being criminalized for doing good
• Corrupt officials abusing their power
• Police intimidation tactics funded by bad actors
• A ward councillor betraying his constituents

While our Park Adoption Proposal (pending since 2020) finally moves forward with support from City Parks AND JPC leadership, we face baseless criminal charges for the very work that makes our community safer.

What We're Asking

We need your voice to:

• Hold Councillor Andrew Steward accountable for supporting corruption over community
• Demand an investigation into SAPS intimidation tactics
• Expose the pattern of harassment against community volunteers
• Protect others from similar retaliation when they try to improve their neighborhoods
• Sign this petition to show that communities standing together can defeat corruption.

Our park is green, beautiful, safer, and more fun than ever. We won't let corrupt actors take that away.