The Goose tees off, but not a green in sight
Slow play keeps champion golfer and his partners waiting
● It’s a battle as tough as any of his duels with Tiger Woods or Ernie Els. Except, after 18 years, there is still no winner.
Star golfer, businessman and now wine farmer Retief Goosen says it has been almost two decades since he was approached to help design the Lagoon Bay golf estate.
Two rivals are in a legal dispute over land for the development on the Garden Route.
“It has been 17-plus years they have been struggling with getting this project on a roll,” Goosen told the Sunday Times from the US this week. “I don’t know who and why people are objecting to this development.”
And the battle is far from over. Having fought objectors all the way to the Constitutional Court — and lost — Gauteng developer Werner Roux has now proposed an agriculture estate on the property, with Goosen again in the mix, as the wine expert.
The plan is to have orchards and vineyards on small farms, some to be managed and harvested by Goosen’s The Goose Wines, according to a submission to the George municipality.
Lagoon Bay — now called Hoogekraal Agricultural Estate — has been reformatted as 201 smallholdings, a land reform village and a conservancy area. It has also acquired a new investor in Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), which lent the developer money to buy 450ha of farmland. The RMB person involved was not available for comment.
Political personalities who have either been involved in or championed the development include Allan Boesak, former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, former SA ambassador to Washington Franklin Sonn and shopping mall tycoon Roux Shabangu of the infamous police office building lease scandal. Various agriculture ministers have also lent their support.
The plan is being challenged by nearby seaside property owners.
Despite the national government go-ahead, the development has failed to secure support from the Western Cape government and the George municipality.
Delia Power, George’s acting director of municipal development planning, said the developer had requested an exemption from application for subdivision.
“The applicant was advised on several occasions to submit an application for subdivision, which has not been done,” she said, adding that the province also needed to approve the proposal.
Roux said the venture would “be great for the area and the environment … [and will] still include the housing precinct for all the farm workers. The new project promises more than 500 permanent job opportunities and in excess of R3bn investment.”
Objectors had mixed feelings about the development, which is not far from estates such as Le Grand and Fancourt. They questioned the viability of the agricultural estate concept.
“The long-term safeguard is that it should be kept agricultural land with some compromises,” said Wim Gericke of the Cape Windlass Environmental Action Group.
He questioned the plan to remove a farmworker settlement in favour of a land reform village on the other side of the nearby N2 highway, and said the rare coastal forest belt should be protected.
“It’s the wrong address. That little stretch of coastline is special, a different world.”
The Goose Wines general manager Pieter Haasbroek said the Hoogekraal site was ideal for grapes. “We plan to build our wine cellar and world-class restaurant on the site.
“Retief is well aware and very excited about the prospects of having a cellar and wine estate in this region and lends his full support to the project.”
Goosen, who has won the US Open twice and been a top-10 golfer, said he hoped for a happy ending at Hoogekraal. “It is a tricky situation. I don’t think I can really comment on what has happened in the past and why it has taken this long. There has been a lot of fingerpointing and demands, and hopefully this is now
all sorted. It is 18 years later.”