Hot airstream in the Elgin Valley

Noseweek Issue #132, 1st October 2010   


Hot airstream in the Elgin Valley

Jody Aufrichtig’s name keeps on popping up. He first featured in a story about a dispute at his Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock. Then he cropped up again when a guest at the Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town had her Mini written off by the hotel’s parking valet.

Now Aufrichtig is being fingered for disturbing the tranquility of the Elgin Valley, after his Daddy Long Legs (Pty) Ltd built a resort there called Old Mac Daddy, where wooden chalets and vintage American airstream trailers (aluminium-clad caravan-type things) provide accommodation.

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Submitted by : Patrick Mahue on 2010-10-02 20:36:41
Mr Aufrichtig is extremely lucky if he does indeed have the support of "Western Cape MEC for Tourism and Other Stuff " Alan Winde. Very few hospitality entrepreneurs have it.
When confronted with a report from one of his colleagues about the retrenchment of 39 hotel staff in a commercially successful Cape Town hotel which had just lost 48% of its sales turnover due to new conditions imposed on its zoning, Alan Winde's reaction was to send a letter signed by an aide claiming this is was "not a tourism issue" and suggesting "contact with MEC Anton Bredell" whose provincial department had just approved the stupid and illegal new conditions in the first place (illegal because Council cannot recommend and Province cannot approve conditions that are not enforceable). No right of appeal of course. Only solution being the High Court for "non-respect of procedures". The 39 staff and the foreign owner were very impressed with that. So were all the foreign investors who contacted him before and after the World Cup.
Said foreign owner is selling and leaving for better climes. KZN looks like a good bet. Hopefully, "Western Cape MEC for Tourism and Other Stuff " Alan Winde will again not follow up and do anything about "an investigation into the difficulties involved in building resorts in the country" (or in the Western Cape's "countryside" for that matter). The other provinces seem to be doing well enough and their residents actually have a choice of resorts on weekends.
Building a resort is practically impossible in the Western Cape at this stage. This makes the Western Cape the only province in SA without an Umngazi River Bungalows & Spa-type resort or any decent resort for that matter. Haven't seen Old Mac Daddy's operation and do not wish to defend it in any way but one has to wonder why the first resort of its kind would be fully booked until March 2011. Possibly because not all residents of the Western Cape can afford a secondary home in Hermanus?
This foreign investor won't be waiting to find out...
 
Submitted by : Mike Turner of RANDBURG on 2010-09-30 13:11:24
There may even be some connection between Aufrichtig and Rabie: why not dig a bit??

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