Some say the plan represents jobs while others maintain it’s another apartheid-style creation.
A poor squatter community has the power to make or break a mega country estate on the doorstep of one of South Africa’s elite coastal playgrounds.
Residents of Kurland Village township outside Plettenberg Bay, many of whom have for years worked for their rich polo-playing neighbours, now find themselves the kingmakers in a massive 2600ha plan for a new coastal “town” spearheaded by former Oppenheimer Family Holdings chief executive Clifford Elphick.
The developers want to incorporate the township into the plan - but first need the community’s blessing. Following two stormy meetings in the area, developers this week set up a new committee to negotiate a way forward.
According to Elphick’s plan the township dwellers, many of them unemployed, would be absorbed by a labour-intensive Macadamia nut farm and processing plant on his new mega estate. In addition, their homes would be upgraded and they would be included in a BEE profit-share scheme.
The proposed development - at the moment included in a new urban edge plan approved by the local Bitou council - still needs to be approved by the Western Cape provincial planning authority. - Sunday Times
A poor squatter community has the power to make or break a mega country estate on the doorstep of one of South Africa’s elite coastal playgrounds.
Residents of Kurland Village township outside Plettenberg Bay, many of whom have for years worked for their rich polo-playing neighbours, now find themselves the kingmakers in a massive 2600ha plan for a new coastal “town” spearheaded by former Oppenheimer Family Holdings chief executive Clifford Elphick.
The developers want to incorporate the township into the plan - but first need the community’s blessing. Following two stormy meetings in the area, developers this week set up a new committee to negotiate a way forward.
According to Elphick’s plan the township dwellers, many of them unemployed, would be absorbed by a labour-intensive Macadamia nut farm and processing plant on his new mega estate. In addition, their homes would be upgraded and they would be included in a BEE profit-share scheme.
The proposed development - at the moment included in a new urban edge plan approved by the local Bitou council - still needs to be approved by the Western Cape provincial planning authority. - Sunday Times
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