Ghost towns seek fresh flesh and blood
Investors needed to breathe life into shrinking communities
DIAMONDS are forever. Not so two diamond mining towns in Namaqualand where houses, shops and even a golf course go on sale next month to the highest bidder.
De Beers is trying to save the towns on the Northern Cape coast — Kleinzee and Koingnaas — by putting parcels of them up for sale and auction. More than 100 houses, shops, industrial property, angling clubs, sports centres and a nine-hole golf course will go under the hammer or be put up for sale in an attempt to breathe new life into the once bustling towns.
The sale signals the end of an era for the world’s biggest diamond company, which is selling its Namaqualand mine.
Kleinzee and Koingnaas, previously sealed off inside a controlled-access mining area, have already been handed to local municipalities. Only a few hundred people remain, mostly former mine employees given the option of buying their company homes. There are negotiations to dispose of three churches, three schools and a hospital.
Other Northern Cape mining towns were demolished after mining stopped. De Beers is hoping to rejuvenate the two settlements, which date back nearly 100 years. Mining operations may continue on a smaller scale under the new owners, Transhex.
Not everybody is convinced the plan will work. The towns are on a remote stretch of coast at the end of a 100km road, most of it gravel. Some residents fear the auction will not attract enough investors to create a sustainable economy. There are also fears that residents are too poor to afford rates and taxes.
“If people don’t pay, then I’m not sure that the towns will be sustainable,” said NamaKhoi councillor Veronica van Dyk. “But overall I think the auction is positive. We need people from the outside. One must stir the pot to make a stew.”
News of the sale has drawn interest from potential buyers who do not mind a road trip of several hours to get there.
Although the auction is open, Namaqualand residents will get first option to promote occu- pancy and prevent the villages from becoming holiday towns. A previous development plan proposed a “closed” upmarket security estate. There was also talk of a casino and a hotel.
The jewel in the De Beers property crown is Kleinzee, at the mouth of the Buffels River overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. About 50 of the town’s 350 homes are up for sale.
Prospective buyers might also be interested in a shooting club, a badminton club, an indoor sports centre, an Olympic-size heated swimming pool and sports fields.
The sale has drawn criticism from some former miners who believe they should get their houses for free. There is also unhappiness about the poor state of roads connecting the towns to the outside world.
Schalk Lubbe, mayor of the Springbok-based NamaKhoi council that now manages Kleinzee, said the handover of the towns and infrastructure had been delayed by the provincial government in Kim- berley, which is 700km away.
“We are prepared to take it over and De Beers is leaving it in a very good condition,” Lubbe said.
He said the municipality had a responsibility to ensure the towns could promote development in the economically depressed region.
“Those towns will be destroyed in two or three years if we don’t get it right.”
Andrew Henwood, De Beers corporate finance manager, said the purpose of the auction was to promote local ownership. “An auction is the most democratic and transparent process. That’s why we’ve gone that route.”
He said the company was negotiating with the government to take over Kleinzee Hospital and three schools. “The school facilities are extremely good,” Henwood said.
De Beers spokesman Tom Tweedy said the company’s approach was to address the “general good rather than a single interest”.
Most residents sounded upbeat about the area’s prospects. The towns are largely un- touched by crime and people still leave the keys in their cars. “I love it here. If everybody left, I would stay here alone,” said pensioner Stephen Clarke.
Kleinzee builder Hilton Beukman, who once employed 80 people when the town was at its peak and the mine had more than 2 000 workers, said Koingnaas and Kleinzee needed investment to survive. “You can’t believe how many people have left since the mine closed. Work is very, very scarce.”
Since the local bottle store and KwikSpar closed, locals have to drive about 100km to shop.
Beukman warned prospective residents to be prepared for the quiet life. “It used to be that you couldn’t find parking outside the [recreation] club on a Friday afternoon. Now, if two cars are at a stop street it’s a traffic jam,” he said.