An estate usually associated with vineyards and high living is focusing on ecological sustainability and social development Barry Streek A pair of fish eagles has returned to the Eerste river in the Lynedoch area near Stellenbosch for the first time in generations after a R2-million clean-up of a section of the river. Meanwhile, a worm farm has been established to produce worms for the environment-friendly sewerage system for the new 142-room hotel at the Spier Estate. When the R55-million Cape hotel, The Village at Spier, opens on November 1 all the sewerage produced by guests will go into a system of tanks packed with peat and worms, which will digest the effluent, eventually producing clean enriched water that will be used to irrigate Spier’s substantial gardens. The sewerage system, developed from an Australian and South African design, is “a world first”, says former Planact activist Mark Swilling. “It is everything you find in a river. It is a naturally engineered eco-system. It is what nature would do in a river.” The worm farm – and, believe it or not, they are ordinary South African worms – and the removal of aliens from the Eerste river area are not way-out projects of an environmental freak: they are, in fact, an integral part of the strategy and vision of those involved in the massive development of the Spier Estate, which already has four restaurants, a conference centre, a pub, picnic facilities, a wine centre, a top-class golf course, an equestrian centre, an education centre training professional chefs and a cheetah park, and which will eventually have two hotels and three housing villages. Eve Annecke, who like Swilling is part of the strategic management team, focused on combining financial viability, ecological sustainability and social development. “We are about a quarter of the way,” she said. “We are aiming for sustainability but we want to add social equity and environmental integrity. We have a bloody long way to go.” The owner of the estate, former MP and businessman Dick Enthoven, summed up the approach: “In 150 years time, let them look back and say, ‘They did a good job.'” The local school, Lynedoch Primary, which has 242 children and seven teachers, is housed in a prefabricated tin building built 30 years ago – it was meant to be replaced after five years with a permanent building. By next year it will be moved to a permanent building with seven classrooms now being built into a huge shed at the site of the Drie Gewels hotel, which Spier has bought. The redevelopment of the shed, which will include a stage and hall, is being built by the Buthisizwe Educational and Training Centre. The centre was established by the Amy Biehl Foundation and employs local Stellenbosch people, mostly from the Kayamandi township. The school’s principal requested that the old hotel’s swimming pool be retained so that the children could be taught to swim, a major need in an area where children regularly drown in farm dams. The old Drie Gewels hotel houses the estate management, the Spier Arts Trust (which has been relocated from plush offices in Cape Town) and a sewing project where this week four local women were sewing covers for cushions for the hotel opening in two months. They have also been making other items for the hotel, including staff uniforms. It is intended that the sewing project will become financially viable and be able to make products that will be sold to the public. Two other similar projects are involved in making soap and candles, initially for sale to the hotel. The candlemakers are from a project for the homeless from nearby Paarl. A paper-making project is also planned. The hotel is to be part of an “eco-village” where 150 houses are to be built, particularly for farm workers – not only from Spier but also from neighbouring farms. The minimum value of the houses, which will be owned by the workers, is R60 000 each. The Lynedoch Development Company, a non- profit Section 21 operation, has already taken transfer of the land and it will eventually be controlled by a board elected by the residents of the village, although Spier will also have representation on it. The Lynedoch village will also have a pre- primary school – another first for the area – craft workshops and a community centre. Two other eco-villages are planned, but one, De Salze, will be more upmarket near the golf course and close to the planned luxury Ritz- Carlton hotel, which is being developed in partnership with a United States-based international hospitality group.
The Spier Estate also has a number of farming projects. Apart from the inevitable vineyards, there is a 40ha vegetable farm that is being transformed into an organic farm and Go Organic in which five emerging farmers are acquiring a 25% share. The farmers, who grow mainly lettuce and are already selling their products to Woolworths and Spar, have so far developed 7,5ha and are providing employment to others. According to one of the farmers, Gerrit Hendriks, they took produce worth R60 000 off the first 5ha they developed. Hendriks was unemployed for three years after he refused to work for white farmers because they exploited his skills. Another of the new organic farmers, Tommy Farao, was a barman at Spier and a shop steward in the South African Catering and Allied Workers’ Union. Two of Spier’s farming projects are managed by black people and it is anticipated that the third will also soon have a black manager.
Then there is the organic compost project, a vegetable packing project – run with a commercial packing company – and a planned tree nursery that aims to plant 1E000 indigenous trees a year. A site for a fynbos nursery has also been identified. About 700 people are employed on the Spier Estate, the foundation section of which was acquired by Enthoven in 1993. It is expected that 1E500 people will have permanent jobs there by the time the luxury hotel is completed.
They may only be a quarter of the way at Spier and they have yet to establish what people in 150 years might regard as “a good job”, but they are on their way to fulfilling their vision of “sustainability through wealth creation, social equity and environmental integrity”.