GOOD Statement by Robin Hendrikse
GOOD Stellenbosch Municipality Councillor
12 August 2026
GOOD Stellenbosch is deeply concerned that decisions taken by the Stellenbosch Municipal Council have placed Jamestown’s historic farmlands, small-scale farmers, and water security under growing development pressure.
The proposed Blaauwbosch Estate is not simply another planning application. It exposes a much bigger question: why did Council relax the urban edge around historically significant agricultural land despite objections from the community?
GOOD was not represented in Stellenbosch Council when the 2019 Municipal Spatial Development Framework was adopted. We carry no responsibility for that decision. But we have a responsibility today to demand answers.
The Municipality’s own 2019 record shows that objections were raised to extending the urban edge in Southern Jamestown, including the agricultural smallholdings known as the Tuinerwe between Webersvallei Road and the Blaauwklippen River.
Residents argued that this land formed part of Jamestown’s agricultural landscape and cultural heritage and should remain outside the urban edge.
The Municipality’s response was that “the Tuinerwe is not intended for development.”
Yet Council approved the altered urban edge.
So GOOD asks a simple question: if this land was genuinely not intended for development, why was it brought inside the urban edge in the first place?
And now the community is forced to fight application after application to defend what should have been protected through responsible long-term planning.
The people of Jamestown warned Council, and the current Blaauwbosch proposal shows why those warnings matter.
Let us be clear: GOOD is not saying that the Blaauwbosch application has already been approved. It has not. The application is still to be decided.
Jamestown is not vacant land waiting to be developed. It is a living community with generations of agricultural history. Families have farmed strawberries, vegetables and other produce there for decades. The leivoor is not simply infrastructure. It supports livelihoods, heritage and a way of life.
GOOD supports development that addresses inequality, housing need and spatial exclusion. But that is very different from allowing historically significant agricultural land to become increasingly vulnerable to exclusive residential development while established communities carry the environmental, infrastructure and cultural risks.
We are therefore calling for full political and administrative accountability.
The Municipality must disclose the planning rationale for changing the Jamestown urban edge in 2019, the objections received, how those objections were dealt with, and what studies were relied upon regarding agriculture, heritage, water, traffic and infrastructure.
When the current Blaauwbosch application is considered, the protection of the leivoor, small-scale farmers, agricultural heritage and the established Jamestown community must come first.
There must be no development approval that compromises the water supply on which farmers depend.
There must be no casual destruction of a living agricultural heritage.
And there must be no rewriting of history to pretend that Council was never warned.
The record shows that objections were raised. Council made its decision. The consequences of that decision now deserve scrutiny.
GOOD will stand with the people of Jamestown in demanding answers, transparency, and accountable planning.
Jamestown’s land matters. Its water matters. Its heritage matters. Its farmers matter. And their voices must matter before decisions are taken — not only after the damage becomes difficult to reverse.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za