Parties Hold Their Breath In Battle Over R300-million Stellenbosch Mountain Estate

A Western Cape High Court judge is mulling over whether to approve an urgent application for an interim interdict to temporarily halt all further work on a R300-million luxury housing estate being developed on the mountain slopes above Helshoogte Pass, just outside Stellenbosch.

The interdict application forms part A of a High Court application that will be followed by part B, seeking final relief through several substantial legal challenges to the continued development of Botmaskop Fynbos Estate now under construction.

Concerned citizens, who have brought the interdict application, argue that the environmental integrity of this important site will be forever lost if development is allowed to continue.

But the judge was told by the developer that granting the application would likely be catastrophic because of the impact on future sales of erven in the gated estate.