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.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
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.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
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.
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”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
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.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
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.