Once again, the hyenas are circling the corpse of another, once proud historic wine farm. Although, this time, it does feel more personal. Like T.M Shine’s book says: “Nothing happens until it happens to you.”
Another winelands lifestyle estate is under development – this time on a 106ha piece of the historic Altydgedacht wine farm in Durbanville.
Altydgedacht development boundaries.
Knowing the family that owns the farm, having walked the vineyards and helped in the cellar, the loss feels greater this time.
To add insult to injury we were met with the sight of armed white men forcefully removing tenants from homes off Altydgedacht not too long ago as the developers are preparing the farm for development. I’m well aware of the more complicated context behind this specific removal. Illegal squatters were in the wrong and the owners were fully within their rights and complied with all necessary laws. With South Africa’s sordid history and the wine industry’s already severely damaged image as a rich man’s plaything, it still goes down like a snoek bone in the throat.
How easily we forget the non-monetary value (or hedonic value in business speak) of these working farms on our doorstep.
Altydgedacht has always been one of the keystone farms in Durbanville's history, contributing to the unique character of the area. Not just by having local historic value, but also international heritage with Napoleon’s secretary staying at the farm for three months before being sent to St Helena in 1815.
If you think I am getting too sentimental, I would like to remind you that there are real financial losses that will be incurred not only by the local community and businesses but also the homeowners of the surrounding suburbs.There was quite a premium paid by the homeowners of Aurora, Kenridge and van Riebeeckshof to live in the vicinity of a working wine farm (for a myriad of individual reasons). As the residents of the northern edge of Aurora can tell you, that premium disappears like morning mist when those estate fences go up.
We have not even touched on the important role this specific peri-urban agricultural land play in the Cape Flats Aquifer cycles for which the Tygerberg Hills form the northern boundary.
The surrounding homeowners should not get too high and mighty in their self-righteousness just yet. Most of Kenridge and Aurora were built on what was, not too long ago, part of Altydgedacht farm. So, what is a few more hectares this one more time?
Preserving historic agricultural land is a difficult issue worldwide. The reason for the difficulty in preservation is that the historic value of such farms comprises of more than just their homesteads and cellars.
It is about what the contribution of the operating enterprise was to the community that gives it historical significance. This can be seen in the fact that Altydgedacht forms part of the Durbanville Hills historic cultural landscape, together with the other Durbanville wine route farms. It is in an area that the City of Cape Town specifically discourages urban development in.
Not to mention the ecological conservation of the renosterbos and tributary drainage areas spearheaded by the late matriarch of Altydgedacht, Jean Parker. Parker. If not for motivated farmers like her, we would not even have the opportunity to debate the historic, cultural, ecological and economic value of a farm like Altydgedacht, as a working farm in 2023. This does not consider the viticultural heritage and winemaking importance of the unique and award-winning wines that have been produced from some of the best Pinotage, Barbera and Gewürztraminer that have been grown in the whole Cape town wine of origin region.
In an ironic twist of fate, settlements are usually erected around the most fertile land. Meaning, the first land that that gets developed are these fertile lands that led to the growth in the settlements in the first place. Another glaring example is the Phillipi Horticultural Area standing like an island in a sea of humanity, slowly being eroded, year by year, as they struggle to hold back the digger loaders.
This is the problem with these developments. Building them destroys the very reason that made the area so attractive for development in the first place.
So, will all this hubbub about another development stop the development of Altydgedacht, when it so obviously is a bad idea, and even discouraged by the City of Cape Town who is actively struggling with a housing shortage? Probably not. The potential profits are just too juicy to pass up, no matter how shortsighted they may be. The big guys are too big and the little guys too small. The best we can probably hope for is a “ag shame what a waste” when driving past in the future.
A farm is like a living entity. You need it functional to contribute culturally and economically to the surrounding community.
So, next time you drive past or even into one of these farm lifestyle estates dotted around Cape Town, let their high walls and decorated entrances stand as a monument in your mind to what we have lost. It’s not just a loss the local farming community, but to the entire Western Cape’s cultural heritage.
Editor's note: Being made aware of certain discrepancies in this article on 26 January 2023, the writer has since amended the article. In the beginning of the article, the writer said, "Another winelands lifestyle estate is under development – this time on the historic Altydgedacht wine farm in Durbanville", which made it sound like the entire farm is under development. The writer changed the sentence to be more factually correct: "...this time on a 106ha piece of the historic Altydgedacht wine farm in Durbanville". A map as also been included. Secondly, the writer originally referred to the Parker family as "the family that used to own the farm". This is untrue because the Parker family still partially owns the farm. Thus the article now reads: "the family that owns the farm".