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New golf course splits Swakopmund community Friday 9th of June 2006 The envisaged golf course along the beachfront of Vineta by a black empowerment company has brought a divide among mainly the white Swakopmund community. Protest meetings and letters written to newspapers rejecting the N$200 million development by business men Sidney Martin of Diaz Fishing fame, also a successful commercial farmer and Lazarus Jacobs who runs the respected TBWA Hunt Lascaris advertising agency in Windhoek.
Martin and Jacobs have together with Desmond Amunyela of Paragon Investments formed "The Skeleton Coast Golf Development Company" to develop the 9-hole "Golf Links Course" estate, a club house, 45 town houses, a hotel and spa as well as a multi purpose centre. "It is a recreational golf course, so it will only be used on Saturday mornings", Lazarus Jacobs told PLUS, "the other six-and-a-half days the golf green can be used by the public, where they can walk their dogs, hold picnics, exercise and where children can play". The entrepreneurs plan a golf-training academy for the youth of the nearby Mondesa townships along with a multi purpose youth centre with library, computer lab and a community hall to offer the youth meaningful recreational activities. "The Swakopmunders seem to be afraid of development and change", Jacobs lamented. A Vineta resident however bluntly told PLUS it was rather an issue of "black and white". The noise to be expected from the youth centre and the community hall would "disturb our peace and quiet", the resident noted. "And all these young people hanging around!" Another fear was that the value of the houses would go down, once the Links Golf Estate was built. "And the name is terrible – Links, how can you give such a name?" the elderly German-speaking resident criticized. |
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