DA GAMA CONCEPT

Marina Da Gama was the ambitious brainchild of Anglo American who, in 1969, decided to develop the area into a playground for the rich and famous

It was a magnificent concept and they promised “an ocean harbour with a full range of services and facilities for 500 ocean-going boats linked to the residential area with mooring for another 1 000 boats; an 18-hole golf course with a country club and country homes set round fairways; and a tranquil lake surrounded by houses and parks and landscaped environment.”
In addition there was going to be:

• Three shopping centres;
• Tennis courts;
• Squash Courts;
• Bowling Greens;
• Swimming pools;
• An Equestrian centre;
• One hotel linked to the golf course and country club;
• One international class hotel on the deep water basin with berthing in the ocean marina;
• Cinemas;
• An oceanarium;
• An open-air theatre;
• A mashie golf course;
• A town centre;
• A children’s playground;
• Two high schools;
• Five junior schools;
• The possibility of a nursery school;
• Places of worship;
• In addition 3 million trees were going to be planted to ward off the wind.

In total, Anglo were thinking of 5 000 homes, providing facilities for between 15 000 and 17 000 people to be situated on 1 500 acres of land.

The Township development was approved By A C Moore, the then Director of Local Government of the Provincial Administration of the Cape of Good Hope on 19 December 1972 and work on this ambitious project began.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Unfortunately for Anglo American the timing of the project could not have been worse. Work started on the Marina in 1973, the exact year that OPEC decided to embark on an oil embargo against the West as a result of the ongoing Yom Kippur War.Oil prices skyrocketed and the economy went into a slump.

Meanwhile, Anglo started work on the first of the intended five phases of Marina Da Gama. They dry-dredged and landscaped the waterways to a depth of 2 meters and only after completion, opened them into Zandvlei. Work started on the first 19 freestanding homes and 21 townhouses, but, because of the economic slump, sales were slow. In 1974, they sold the first houses, but unfortunately, in 1977 there was a minor crash in stock market, which slowed the sales down even more.

By the late 1970s Anglo had all but given up on the project. They had made a massive loss on their investment and were looking or other, greener pastures and their attention turned to Balito near Durban.

By this time too, homeowners in the area were fed up with Anglo’s dictatorial style and started questioning Anglo’s right to dictate every aspect of the development. There were also questions asked about the constitution of the Eastlake Association. Marina Da Gama was just too much trouble, and Anglo pulled out of the development completely.

THE ASSOCIATION

1972 – 1979

In the Final Report of the City Engineer dated 27 June 1972, he said that it was not envisaged to have a home-owners association, except possibly for the purpose of controlling privately owned public parking bays. Each home had to have an extra parking bay for visitors and homeowners were allowed to “donate” these parking bays to Anglo to administer via the Association.

There does, however, not appear to have been a constitution for the Eastlake Association before 1979 although the Administrator included the title deed restriction that owners had to belong to the Eastlake Association when he approved the Township development in December 1972.

Although there was a restriction, neither the Association itself, nor its constitution was ever registered anywhere. The oldest constitution of the Eastlake Association is dated 1979. Whether this constitution was drawn up by Anglo in 1979 is unclear. Legal papers on the matter dating back to the early 1980s do talk of a constitution, but by 1984 no-one had yet seen a copy thereof.

Obviously, the people who had bought into the idea of Marina Da Gama had also lost a lot of money. They had been sold the idea of a paradise, but when Anglo decided to pull out, their original investment was worth much less. Shop owners in the Eastlake Shopping Centre decided to sue Anglo for the loss and the case was settled out of court with Anglo buying the property back from them at the original price and giving them the opportunity to buy it again at a considerably reduced price.

Advocate Dennis Delahunt represented the shop-owners in this case but even he was not able to obtain a copy of the constitution and the first copies of the 1979 constitution only came to light after 1984. The 1979 constitution was, unlike other documents supplied by Anglo, typewritten instead of printed, and did not contain the usual Marina logo. Anglo had all but abandoned Marina Da Gama, and the original 8 directors had dwindled to 2. Ostensibly the document gave the two Anglo American directors complete power over every aspect of Marina Da Gama and they could even change the constitution as they saw fit. Members had absolutely no say whatsoever in the running of the Association and it was never “handed over” to the home owners to make it a proper homeowners association.

1986

In 1984 Advocate Dennis Delahunt was again approached, this time by Maud Beamish, to draft a new constitution for Marina Da Gama. Although he advised that the new constitution had to be presented to the members at an Annual General Meeting and that the members of the Association had to approve the constitution before it became of any force and effect, this was never done, and the new constitution was merely handed to the members as a fait accompli in April 1986.

1987

On 2 October 1987 the Administrator declared Marina Da Gama a “Special Area” in terms of the Land Use Planning Ordinance. This gave the Eastlake Association the right to comment on building plans before submission to Council and forbade homeowners to change the colour of the exterior of the buildings without the City Engineer’s Express Permission. The Executive Committee of the Eastlake Association declared themselves “Masters of their own destiny” and “having similar legal authority as Cape Town City Council” in the November 1987 Newsletter. Of course, this was a major exaggeration, and this privilege has been much abused by the Executive Committee of the Association.

1989

On 31 July 1989, the Association changed its name to from “Eastlake Association” to the “Marina Da Gama Association” as it was felt that the name “Eastlake Association” did not represent the entire Marina Da Gama. The name change was not formalised and Title Deeds still reflect that home owners have to belong to the “Eastlake Association”.
2005 to today

The Marina Da Gama Association decided to change their yearly subscriptions to monthly levies. This spurs major opposition from members which led to the creation of this website.

Conclusion:

Marina Da Gama has had its fair share of interesting personalities. There was Dave Jack, the first City Planner of Cape Town, Clive Morris, long known as Mr. Marina. Maud Beamish, Hans Middleman, and many, many more, but these pages I leave for you to complete. Send us your stories, good or bad. If you can, include photos and copies of documents. The Marina is a fascinating place, with fascinating people. Please take this opportunity to fill in the gaps in this history and make the people of Marina Da Gama live for prosperity.

(With Thanks from Anita Koetsier)