Spa treatment needed
A billion-rand investment earmarked for Calitzdorp Spa and De Hoek Mountain Resort received much attention in the media the past week. Doubt was cast on the bona fides of the Garden Route Mayor, Memory Booysen, and the Indonesian company interested to invest in these dilapidated resorts in Kannaland and Oudtshoorn.
The Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) has issued a press release strongly denying any wrongdoing, stating that all information on matters relating to the proposed developments of both municipal resorts have been shared with Council, the public and media.
It has been alleged that the company would get preferential treatment when considered for the 50-year lease of the resorts, following a n all-e x pense spa id trip fora municipal delegation, including the mayor, to Indonesia in September last year.
The conference
It started with an investment conference at Oubaai in March last year, which paved the way for domestic and foreign direct investment in the region. The ISCC Group of Companies, which includes Ithuba Savings and Credit; LEN24 GmbH ISC Bank; and E-banking and Investment Solutions, showed great interest and made a proposal to the district municipality. They proposed a sustainable smart town for industrial, commercial and residential development within the Garden Route and the possible establishment of a manufacturing plant for electric cars.
Some six months after the conference, Booysen, Municipal Manager Monde Stratu and executive manager of Planning and Economic Development, Lusanda Menze, were invited by the chairperson and CEO of the ISCC Group, Jean Bilala*, to visit Indonesia from 6 to 11 September 2018 and view their infrastructure projects. According to Booysen, this was intended for the GRDM to gain insight in the level and quality of their work.
It was an all-expenses-paid trip, he said, and it happened with full knowledge of Council. "I sent a message to all councillors asking for advice [before the trip] and I made a proposal which even the opposition accepted. I disclosed the full funding, and on our return I briefed the full council once again on 1 October 2018. Again the opposition supported me. We even posted all the details on our website in 2018 about the MOU, funding etc. This is news to me that all of a sudden some people, including councillors, smell a rat," said Booysen.
The MOU
During the trip to Indonesia, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between GRDM and the ISCC companies Ithuba Savings and Credit, LEN24 GmbH ISC Bank, and E-banking and Investment Solutions. In the MOU it was outlined that land and infrastructure will be identified for investment purposes.
In an interview with the George Herald, Booysen said the ISCC Group was the only player in the hospitality industry that showed an interest to invest in the two resorts, Calitzdorp Spa and De Hoek Mountain Resort. The GRDM maintains that the process to lease the resorts is still in the public participation phase and that no tender has yet been awarded to any company on the management and operation of the resorts, nor has any lease agreement been signed.
The investors
In a conversation with Booysen, he said the potential investors - the ISCC Group of Companies - are South Africans with roots in Cape Town and multiple businesses overseas. "Now, with our initiatives, they saw an opportunity to come back home," he said. "The risk with all this 'hullabaloo' is that the Garden Route could lose an investment opportunity which is, in fact, for the broader community."
George Herald was unsuccessful in its attempt to contact Jean Bilala* of Ithuba and ISCC. * Jean Bilala is named in the GRDM's press release as both the president of Ithuba Savings and Credit, and the chairperson and CEO of the ISCC Group.