A Constantia wine farm once co-owned by the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, is at the centre of a dispute over plans to develop a luxury housing estate on it.
Constantia Uitsig applied last month for rezoning to allow it to build a 30-unit up-market housing estate on part of the 60ha property.
This would help to finance construction of a winery, the replanting of ageing vines and other improvements.
But scores of Constantia residents have objected to the company's request to convert part of the farm to housing. Lindsay Speirs, a consultant at the firm conducting the environmental impact study for the rezoning application, said it had received about 300 comments.
"Mostly, people aren't happy," she said. "They think the rural sense of place will change and it will be a precedent for other farms to go the same way."
Sexwale resigned from Mvelaphanda, a company with wide ranging business interests, after being appointed to the cabinet to avoid a conflict of interest.
A consortium led by Sexwale purchased a 50% stake in Constantia Uitsig in 2005.
Asked if Sexwale still had a stake in the wine farm, Sexwale's spokesman Chris Vick said all the ministers' business interests were held in a blind trust.
Lawrie Mackintosh, chairman of the Constantia Uitsig company, said Sexwale was an occasional customer at the award-winning restaurants at Constantia Uitsig, but would never intervene in the rezoning application.
Mackintosh said the proposed development included the first land reform initiative for farmworkers in the valley.
He said the 12 families living and working on the farm would be offered a 35% equity stake in the wine operation, with the option of owning their own homes in a nearby suburb.
"We have an established farm, we have an established brand. The idea is to give the farmworkers a stake in that," he said.
Mackintosh acknowledged reaction from neighbours had been "mixed". "One of the residents' associations is notorious for not wanting any change to the so-called rural lifestyle," he said.
- Timeslive
Constantia Uitsig applied last month for rezoning to allow it to build a 30-unit up-market housing estate on part of the 60ha property.
This would help to finance construction of a winery, the replanting of ageing vines and other improvements.
But scores of Constantia residents have objected to the company's request to convert part of the farm to housing. Lindsay Speirs, a consultant at the firm conducting the environmental impact study for the rezoning application, said it had received about 300 comments.
"Mostly, people aren't happy," she said. "They think the rural sense of place will change and it will be a precedent for other farms to go the same way."
Sexwale resigned from Mvelaphanda, a company with wide ranging business interests, after being appointed to the cabinet to avoid a conflict of interest.
A consortium led by Sexwale purchased a 50% stake in Constantia Uitsig in 2005.
Asked if Sexwale still had a stake in the wine farm, Sexwale's spokesman Chris Vick said all the ministers' business interests were held in a blind trust.
Lawrie Mackintosh, chairman of the Constantia Uitsig company, said Sexwale was an occasional customer at the award-winning restaurants at Constantia Uitsig, but would never intervene in the rezoning application.
Mackintosh said the proposed development included the first land reform initiative for farmworkers in the valley.
He said the 12 families living and working on the farm would be offered a 35% equity stake in the wine operation, with the option of owning their own homes in a nearby suburb.
"We have an established farm, we have an established brand. The idea is to give the farmworkers a stake in that," he said.
Mackintosh acknowledged reaction from neighbours had been "mixed". "One of the residents' associations is notorious for not wanting any change to the so-called rural lifestyle," he said.
- Timeslive
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