Franschhoek Tatler - February 2020

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Page 14 Q&A: Franschhoek Senior Librarian

FRANSCHHOEK’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AND ADVERTISER SINCE 1994 • FEBRUARY 2020

Fransche Hoek Agricultural Estate Completes Social Accord On 11 December 2019 the final piece of the Fransche Hoek Agricultural Estate puzzle fell into place. This puzzle had its origins more than 20 years ago when the various interests from the Franschhoek community entered into a historic agreement, commonly known as the Social Accord. Underlying this Accord was a piece of municipal commonage, situated on the north eastern side of the village. This land belonged to the Franschhoek Municipality which was later incorporated into the Stellenbosch Municipality. Until then it had served as a sewerage farm, rubbish dump, sand mine and riffle range and had become overgrown with invasive alien vegetation. In order to realise the benefits which could flow from proper use of this land a public/private/ community partnership for the development of the land offered the best chance of success. This partnership needed to ensure use of the land in such a manner as to not only provide the capital for cross-subsidisation of urgently needed social development needs as well as conserving the biodiversity of the area, but also had to ensure continued sustainability of the initiative. The Social Accord was like a complex puzzle. It covered all aspects of the development of the commonage which was collectively named the Fransche Hoek Estate (FHE). The FHE essentially consisted of three independent projects, namely the agricultural and housing estate, a business node and a tourism node. Fransche Hoek Agricultural Estate forms the agricultural and housing aspect of the greater FHE. The Social Accord envisaged many different benefits to flow from the land development. The most important parts of the Accord were the provision of 750 full-title homes in Mooiwater for members of the previously disadvantaged community, restitution of land ownership for 40 previously dispossessed land owners, provision of 60 medium-cost affordable homes for community members who do not qualify for low-cost housing benefits and the adoption of an annuity income model to ensure future sustainability of the initiative.

In the photo are FLTR: Andre de Nuysschen (FHAE HOA: Chairman), Norval Williams (FREMCO Chairman), Cllr. W. Petersen (Deputy Executive Mayor Stellenbosch Municipality), Bruce Berry (representative from the DBSA and ex-FRANDEVCO Chairman), Dirk Hattingh (ex-FREMCO chairman) and Dr Ernest Messina (ex-FREMCO chairman).

The Franschhoek Empowerment and Conservation Trust (FREMCO) was established to represent the community and to administer all future sustainable benefits flowing from the initiative. The sustainability model which was adopted required the developer to contribute a percentage of all initial property sales on the estate to the FREMCO Trust. Future property sales would contribute further. To date the Fransche Hoek Agricultural Estate has contributed approximately R1,5 million to the FREMCO Trust. With the above aspects of the development model in place one last aspect of the Accord remained to be completed, namely the transfer of a portion of agricultural land (commonly referred to as the FREMCO land) to FREMCO who would hold it in trust for the community. Achieving this was however a drawn-out and complex process, as all of the agricultural land needed first to be transferred to the Fransche Hoek Agricultural Estate Home Owners Association, once established, and thereafter the FREMCO portion needed to be subdivided in order to register a separate title for this land. Nevertheless the parties persevered in good faith and with a good dollop of patience. Finally on 11 November 2019 the process was completed when the FREMCO land was registered as a separate title at the Deeds Office. Continued on Page 2...

When it matters the most our expertise sells homes Doug Gurr +27 (0)72 610 7208 doug.gurr@pamgolding.co.za

Jeanine Allen +27 (0)82 410 6837 jeanine.allen@pamgolding.co.za Office: +27 (0)21 876 2100 winelandsint@pamgolding.co.za


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