Billionaire Thwarted In Bid To Evict Lifelong Farm Worker
Noseweek|October 2019
Ex-trade unionist Marcel Golding loses high court battle.
Martin Welz
Billionaire Thwarted In Bid To Evict Lifelong Farm Worker
IN JULY 2013 BILLIONAIRE ex-trade unionist Marcel Golding, then still executive chairman of HCI (Hosken Consolidated Investments) bought portions 9 and 11 of the once-famous Cape wine farm Nooitgedacht (“Never imagined”) from fellow multi-millionaire Simon Barlow for R42.5 million.

Well situated in the foothills of the Helderberg Mountain, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, the farm – now reduced to a mere 75 hectares,– is unlikely to be commercially viable as a wine farm, and would generally be regarded as a millionaire’s vanity project, confirmed by the huge wrought iron entrance gates each bearing a large letter G, presumably for Golding. Golding refers to his property as a “boutique wine farm”.

In his heyday, he was executive chairman of HCI and a major stakeholder, together with his then business partner Johnny Copeland, in an empire of companies the likes of e.tv, Johnnic, and Tsogo Sun. It would all come crashing down in October 2014, when Copeland had him suspended as HCI chairman for alleged “gross misconduct” related to an undisclosed share deal.

Now, lower down the financial scale but equally serious, the one-time champion of trade unionism has had a full bench of the Western Cape High Court thwart his attempts to summarily evict a farmworker, born on Nooitgedacht, and his young family without proper notice or just cause. But we are ahead of our story.

Many years ago Simon Barlow had built nine identical dormer cottages for his farmworkers along the treelined farm lane 200 meters from the farmhouse. When he sold the farm to Marcel Golding’s company, Darmane Investments (Pty) Ltd in 2013, Barlow moved to one of his other farms, the more famous Rustenberg, taking some of the Nooitgedacht farmworkers with him.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2019 من Noseweek.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2019 من Noseweek.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من NOSEWEEK مشاهدة الكل
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

Panel Beater De Luxe

Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.

time-read
8 mins  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman

Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

Everybody Drinks Corona

I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.

time-read
3 mins  |
May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

time-read
4 mins  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

time-read
8 mins  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

Bush school – A memoir

OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020