The collapse of a major windsurfing manufacturer because of the construction of a road spotlights the effect of inept town planning on business Thuli Nhlapo Boudewijn Lampe, managing director of Windsurfing Africa in Milpark, stands in a small office, surrounded by trophies and surfing equipment. “It is six years down the line and three suicides of bankrupt Milpark Galleries businessmen,” he says, “and I am still here doing odd jobs just to make ends meet.” Lampe has bought a piece of land near Northgate but it will cost him too much to relocate. He needs to build a factory on that land before he can start to manufacture windsurfers again, but he says he is not far from bankruptcy. Most of his manufacturing equipment, packed outside the dilapidated building on Stanley Road facing the Milpark Galleries Shops, has rusted. He hopes the machines will still be working when he finally moves to his new place. When that will be, he does not know. Lampe started manufacturing in South Africa 19 years ago and has made and sold more than 20 000 windsurfers. He says he would still be in business had the Johannesburg City Council, under Democratic Party leadership, not decided in 1993 to revive a 1960s plan to redesign the A3 by constructing a box of arterials around Johannesburg, with roads leading in and out of the CBD. How much of the plan was carried out? Council staff say they don’t know. Some say it was “before their time”, others remember the plan but say they do not know how far it went. Perhaps the desolation that accompanied the most visible manifestation of the plan the flyover at the Empire Road interchange with Barry Hertzog Drive put off the rest. Most businesses that were isolated by the lengthy roadworks at the Empire Road/Barry Hertzog intersection were forced to close or relocate because their customers and clients could not reach them. Among them were the banks: Standard Bank, Nedbank and First National decided to move out. And, says Lampe, that was when three businessmen from the area a watchmaker, his son and a panelbeater took their own lives. A DP fund-raiser recently telephoned Lampe, to his anger and amazement.”After all the DP has done to me, they have a nerve to ask for election campaign money. Where do they think I get that money? I stopped manufacturing windsurfers years ago because they decided the road was more important than my business.” Before Lampe’s fall from grace, he had a 1 500m2 factory. He supplied many countries in Africa with windsurfers and also did business with mainland China, Canada, Australia, Britain and countries in Europe. Then came the roadworks. The factory had to close because a portion of the land he was leasing was in the way. Lampe says he tried to negotiate with the council on moving the factory to a different part of the site as an alternative to moving out. He says he was prepared to reduce the size of his factory to avoid the move but the council was not sympathetic. Lampe insists the municipality did not follow correct procedures such as consulting with local businesses before building the road, which he maintains is “illegal”. Lampe’s reason for trying to keep that piece of land on 36 Braamfontein Werf was that his windsurfing manu-facturing business depended on a special gassing pipe that he had arranged with the Johannesburg Gas Works. There was no way he could relocate without incurring crippling costs. Even though Lampe’s arrangement with his landlord gave him first priority to buy the land where his factory is situated, the owner sold the site to the council. The council then sold the bit it didn’t need to the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industries for R1 a square metre, which Lampe says was close to nothing. Things went from very bad to worse for Lampe. While he was moving across to his current premises in Stanley Road, the demolition crew broke some of his equipment. He has not yet been compensated for the damage. “I am not saying the [African National Congress] government is better,” he says, “but before the DP blames them for every wrong in this country, they must sort out the mess they created. I was running a successful business before the DP embarked on the unnecessary R55-million road project.” Out of 50 employees, Windsurfing Africa has only four left. Lampe says he is struggling to pay them but he doesn’t have the nerve to tell them to leave because they have been with him for a long time. With no factory, they no longer make surfing equipment. To keep themselves busy Lampe and his four employees have resorted to spray-painting cars if a customer happens to come along. The broken pavements, “To Let” signs and abandoned buildings in the vicinity tell the story better than Lampe’s sad voice. At the Milpark Galleries Shops, chains and a big padlock hang on the door because the building is empty. There are occupied offices upstairs in the nearby Metal Box Centre on 25 Owl Road, but the businesses that used to attract a lively custom have gone.