Alexander Bay!

[Michael Alexander]

I just received a sponsor request letter from Alexander Bay. After years of state owned mismanagement the workforce has not been cut back to approx. 100 workers. The people living there were allowed to buy their houses and their extended families moved into the town. The roads are in a bad way as services in the town start to gear down. The few remaining working inhabitants are often spotted across here shopping in Oranjemund as the stock levels on their side leaves a lot to be desired. You now have a situation where the town has massive unemployment with no chance of any job creation and a mining company(state) washing their hands of their responsibility.

One can only hope that the powers that be on this side of the river take notice of this saddened state of affairs and that we do not progress along the same route.....

:-\

[SandyB]

Ouch !  .. Mike  its pretty much  a  repetition thing  that  mankind  does ..   whole  towns  are  set up around  a resource    with  no  future  thought  to  what  will  happen once the resource  dries  up  ( Kolmanskop  etc and  now A bay )
In  the  case  of  OM  the  "shiny  shiny    fairy  gold "  that  was  once  so  abundant   is  also  drying  up .. luckily  on  our  side  of  the river the  resource  was  richer  and  more  abundant   hence the  longer lifespan of  the mine  albeit  definitely  slowing  down observed  by  the  downscaling  and  cost  cutting  in  comparison   to  the days  of  no  expense  spared ..   what  I  do  see  is  that   there  seem  to  be  a  lot of  people  that  like  the  place  and  would like  to  stay  and  that  yes there  is  a  plan that  can  be  made   and that  the town  will   indeed  stay  on the  map  for  many years  to come ..

[Debby Opperman (Biccard)]

Let's just hope that the town does not turn into another Atlantis, what with the high unemployment rate resulting in a high rate of alcoholism.
These poor folk can get no resale value on their homes and therefore cannot afford to move anywhere else to find employment.
A result of corporate greed.

[barb (Fry)]

There are a lot of studies published and the work continues on the feasibility of Omund staying inhabited on google,
basically I think it's an experiment, and you are all masters of your own destiny.

[Michael Alexander]

I believe Koingnaas just south of Kleinzee is also closed down now, with Kleinzee not to far behind, I think De Beers will pull out of Namaqualand soon...

The point though, is if done properly, in conjunction with nature Conservation, Oranjemund could become a massive, safe retirement village...providing jobs and allowing clubs like the Golf, hockey, tennis,bowling and squash to boom again. The pensioners would provide the grounds for a private medical company to take over the hospital.. The tourism potential is huge here, with a yacht club, a river, fishing, dune riding, desert horse riding, mine tours, eco tourism, and the golf course is still one massive asset... The sad thing is the powers that be do not seem to interested in the future of the town, save for the carat call of the diamonds, they create front company's like OTMCO to appease the politicians, to show that there is a future for the town... once the cash cow , De Beers is finished here , the small business's will shut up shop and move on, We are to far from markets to produce goods here and the raw materials would cost to much to bring in. thus... the only outlook would be the largest retirememnt eco village in africa.....there are 3000 housing units, do the maths, that is the only way to sustain this town of ours.... but nobody wants to see that.....

I think of all the pensioners who never wanted to leave here, that were forced out, they could have stayed and contributed to the local economy, and each year as their numbers grew, the local economy would become just that little less dependent on De Beers.....

wake up De Beers!  :-[

[SandyB]

well put  Mike !!

[Charmain Meier (Heusdens)]

Mike

You deserve a NODDY BADGE!!!

Charmain

[Michael Alexander]

Charmain, does a beer come with that Noddy Badge?   ;)

[Charmain Meier (Heusdens)]

Mike,

Yes, just say how many and what kind of beer!!!

Cheers

[Michael Alexander]

Michael Alexander takes a bow, before Charmaine and will hold her to that proposition one day!   ;)

he hopes the beer will be cold........

:D

[Tessa Maritz]

Wow ok, I can personally guarantee you peeps that Alexbay is still going on... And there isn't any talk of buying your house!...De Beers is combining with alexkor can't say when except that people are being moved around town to accommodate the "big bosses". There was a lot of uncertainty with the richtersvelders land claim etc. and there was talk about closing down the mine cause the agreement between Alexkor and the Richtervelders weren't settled. Dooms Month was to be end of May, and then moved to August. The Feedback in August was that Alexkor will be going on if the Richtersvelders don't have any other issues... And so a lot of people have left seeking greener pastures, but for a few mostly on the brink of retirement. Can't just throw 30+years away and start over..
Things in town have deteriorated talking about the roads etc. but in the same breath a lot of cleaning up has been done this past week, Alexkor is probably expecting "visitors" as this is the way things usually goes-we're used to it by now.
Every other week we are without doctors-that's really bad, and as for the sad excuse for a grocer.... They know it's not for hopping in your car and driving to spar or shoprite, so they milk you for all you got! E.g end of the month weekend specials... is more than half you usually pay, so for us it's really special and these special prices apply only from that Thursday afternoon (when all the broke people can write a cheque) to Saturday.Luckily there's a Spar everywhere except here :(
Born in Omund had to move (CT) came back...we'll as near as I could, If this place is in your blood it's in your blood what can I say, so if all goes "vrot" I will be pulling a Plak here build myself a kaia....
P.S Live in Alexanderbay, please send money and food.. ;D

[Richard Opperman]

Saw an advert in the Sunday Times some time back this year.

Namibian Gov were looking for a 3 month study to be made on Omund and surrounding area north to Luderitz as a tourist destination.

Looking at buliding high school (our parents always voted against it - scared of population explosion) and college in Omund and fish farming in diamond area.

Is there any truth in this article?

Richard  ???

[Michael Alexander]

Richard, there are plans afoot to develop the tourism industry, there were a group of Belgians here a few months back wanted to establish a multi million dollar hotel at the Golf Course, same with the International school crowd,  only problem being, is they want proclamation of Oranjemund to occur, which ain't gonna happen to quickly......

IJ and Pescanova were doing fish farming trials on the mine a few years back, but I'm not sure what went wrong, maybe the security was to tight to bring the fish off the mine, but they also packed up and went....

the whole issue is a catch 22 situation, the investors will not invest till proclamation occurs, if it does happen, then the masses will flood into town, thus destroying/damaging the tourism potential drawcard of remote unpopulated wilderness....

lets see what happens....

:)

[Clive Symes]

Closed town / Open Town / Kudu Gas / Power Station / Boarding School / Enviromental management

All in their own time / or not.

We've seen them come and go, until someone either makes a decision or figures there is money to be made sweet nothings going to happen.

Years ago Alexcor was supposed to clear up and rehabilitate the areas around the River Mouth, last time I looked not much had been done.