Cape Town - A Western Cape High Court judge has commented on the racist aspect of the controversial Northern Cape Eureka settlement which was set up as an enclave exclusively for white Afrikaans speakers.
The settlement is described as a “security town where people can securely retire, live and work with their own schools, shops and medical services in their own mother language, Afrikaans and rural culture.”
The company was founded by Adriaan Nieuwoudt – who has since sold his shares in it – “to fight against the uprooting of the white race”.
Judge Patrick Gamble said the objectives of Eureka and the philosophy underlying its establishment stood in stark contrast to the spirit of the Constitution which was to heal the divisions of the past, to promote tolerance and respect between all citizens and to reject racism in all its manifestations.
Judge Gamble said Nieuwoudt established an unlawful exchange for the sale of the company’s shares and despite his apparent departure from the company, the exchange still functioned.
“Then there is the question of Nieuwoudt’s criminal conviction. A liquidator would be entitled to examine whether Nieuwoudt was ever entitled to act as a director of Eureka and if not, the consequences of his conduct on the nascent company.”
Judge Gamble was issuing a temporary liquidation order against Eureka, after an investor questioned the legality of the house she built in the settlement, situated on a farm outside Garies in the Northern Cape.
The scheme involved Nieuwoudt selling strictly controlled shares in Eureka via an internal stock exchange he labelled a “verhandelkamer” or trading room, which then allowed shareholders to build houses on the farm.
The investor, Carolina Lombard, 59, said she purchased shares in Eureka between June 2018 and August 2019 for just under R530000 enabling her to build on the property.
When it came to her attention in June 2021 that the Kamiesberg Municipality was in the process of obtaining demolition orders from the magistrate in respect of structures erected on the farm, she became concerned about the scheme’s legality.