Cape Town - Gary Player, the iconic golfer, could not, on his 70th birthday yesterday, hide his delight at the thought of retiring to Boschendal, the multiple award-winning wine estate in Franschhoek.
Player has already bought one of about 20 Founder's estates of between 23ha and 44ha in size, modelled on farmyards of 200 years ago, at a reported price of between R15 million and R20 million.
The third and fourth planning phases would consist of a retirement village with 500 houses, and the fourth phase would see a boutique hotel with between 80 and 120 rooms, a small specialised retail centre with office accommodation and a residential component, said chief executive Clive Venning.
He told about 200 people at Player's celebratory lunch that plans for the Founder's estate had already been approved by the department of agriculture and the Stellenbosch municipality and now awaited a recommendation by the SA Heritage Resources Agency in March next year when transfers would commence.
On the balance of the property of 344ha of vineyards, applications would be lodged next year and approval was expected in 2007. One of the most important aspects of the Boschendal development was the empowerment and social component.
Thirty percent of Boschendal's equity was in the hands of a broad-based black economic empowerment company, Kovac Investments, headed by chairman Chris Nissen.
Communities in the Boschendal valley would be given 270ha of land, which included 110ha of agricultural land, valued at R50 million and in addition would be given 5 percent of the gross land sale and 0.5 percent of every resale in perpetuity.
This would raise in excess of R120 million in cash for the local community over the next 10 years and Boschendal's contribution would be in excess of $30 million (R200 million) to Dwarsriver community, which has over 7 000 people.
Boschendal was market leader and has set the benchmark for community participation in developments of this nature, which the company believed would lead to the eradication of poverty and unemployment in the valley.
"Our model will be replicated and would help South Africa get out of the problems that we have at the moment," Venning said.
Boschendal estate, which has 344ha of vineyards with a yield of 250 000 cases of white and red wine a year, was sold in December 2003 when a 35 percent stake was bought by an international consortium of investors, Luxembourg-registered Citation Holdings, led by Venning, and an equal stake by South African investors. The remaining 30 percent was bought by Kovac Investments 608.