Finally, the tender for the development of the De Mond Caravan Park in Voëlklip was awarded on 4 March.
The saga regarding the De Mond Caravan Park has come a long way with the residents.
In late 2012, after the Caravan Park Association’s lease expired, 200 families were evicted and 11 days later everybody and their homes had to be gone. In 2014 the last residents of De Mond were forced to evict their homes. But today this prime spot is neglected and it is an eyesore.
“One of Hermanus’ great assets stands today sadly forlorn, neglected and apparently abandoned,” a Hermanus Times reader said. “A major eyesore with broken buildings, piles of building rubbish and blown over trees. That is the current state of De Mond Caravan Park at the eastern end of Voëlklip.”
In August 2019 the Hermanus Times published an article (“Big plans for De Mond afoot”) in connection with the neglected campsite of De Mond Caravan Park.
In this article it was mentioned that the neglected campsite of De Mond Caravan Park could soon receive a new lease on life if everything went well with the project’s public participation process.
After a tender process that took more than a year, the Overstrand Municipality awarded a tender to the Pohl Property Development Group, which listed the project better known as “The Crown Grant” under the future projects list.
According to Coenie Groenewald who served as the Overstrand Municipal Manager at that stage, the lessee submitted an application for consent use (for the development of a hotel), which requires prior municipal approval as well as an approval of a Site Development Plan.
In the same year the Pohl Property Development Group withdrew from the project and OM reopened the tender request for bidders.
On 26 May 2023 the OM sent out a press release about the development plans for the neglected De Mond.
It said: “Those who have been following the progress of the De Mond Resort in Voëlklip over the years, will know what is planned for the old Caravan Park by the end of June 2023.
“The Mayco Member for Infrastructure and Investment, Councillor Clinton Lerm confirmed that the De Mond tender closed on 4 November 2022 and that the relevant department asked for a legal opinion, which has been received.”
The OM said the tender evaluation report would be referred to the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) and Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) for consideration and that a decision was expected to be forthcoming towards the end of June 2023.
It said: “The municipality is also aware of complaints about vagrants illegally using the site and an instruction has been issued to the Protection Services Directorate to inspect and remove such people. Law-enforcement teams will regularly inspect the area for vagrants.”
On 6 March Municipal Manager Dean O’Neill said the public would be notified who the successful bidder is, once they had been notified of the outcome of the award.
“The next step in the process is to negotiate the lease and service-level agreements and attend to the signature,” he said.
“Due to the complexity of the lease agreement it is difficult at this stage to give an exact time frame as to when it will be finalised.
“Once the lease agreement is signed, the successful bidder will be able to start the process of developing the property in terms of the development plan as submitted with the bid. The bidder will be afforded a period of two years to obtain all necessary approvals and to start developing.”
