Business Buildings in Town!

[Michael Alexander]

There is no use flogging a dead horse,

We all know that the main infrastructure  in the CDB of Oranjemund was built in the late 50's and for most of the 60's!

Back in the day when money was a plenty!

Back in the day when diamonds were on a seven year plan, if you know what I mean!

Nobody back in 1950 thought that 60 years later, the town of Oranjemund would still be here, that diamonds would still be mined!

The mine having found innovative ways to mine, pushing the boundaries of land based operations further out into the oceans.

So here we sit, with a town stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Crumbling  infrastructure.... pipes bursting left, right and centre.......

The business buildings are now becoming a serious liability for the company....... and it would be in their best interest to "off-load" them sooner than later.

There is no point in hanging onto them, there is also no purpose in "selling" them of at a high value, they have served their purpose for the mine.
In fact whoever takes over the buildings will be forced to invest a lot of money to get the buildings up to an acceptable level.

It would not be fair to place a burden on the business owner, that for most would eventually see them folding once they have to pay rates and taxes over to the local council.

Already we can see that a number of tenants down at East Gate are battling to make ends meet.

This cold morning in Oranjemund, I was able to take the below photograph of the old bioscope, now Night Call, the Southern end of the building, so damp in the early morning, that you could see the actual steel structure below the the wet exterior.

Let's be honest, these buildings, if anything should be handed over "as is" to the existing business tenants for "next to nothing" , with conditions stating that the mine sold this building " as is and cannot be held liable" going forward.

You cannot have a WHK valuator running around making valuations comparing us  to other Namibian coastal towns like Henties Bay......

We need to move forward and time is running out....

I know a number of business owners that would like to invest in their building and structure but are hesitant....

Why can the company not come to the party, and offload these non cor assets/liabilities of theirs for the benefit of all concerned!

[Bertie Horak]

Making good sense, Mike.   It is clear that it would benefit NOBODY if it is just allowed to get worse, lowering its value, and eventually making it a bad buy for anybody who wants to buy/use.
Wake up!