MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Spirit of collaboration reawakens deferred Solms-Delta dream
Tommy Hall has created a new entity that is 100% black-owned with much the same objectives as the original
“No good deed goes unpunished” — might well serve as the payoff line for the first incarnation of the Solms-Delta project. The property was inherited by neuroscientist Mark Solms more than two decades ago. He decided to engage with the problematic history of an estate dating back to 1690 and bring the community that worked and lived on the farm into its ownership and management. He established a museum, which told of the property’s slave-owning past and presented archaeological exhibits that revealed an ancient Khoi settlement. Part of the impetus behind his vision was an attempt to “redress some of the farm’s bitter legacies”.
In his own words, he was naive in thinking that good intentions would produce a viable operation. Despite funds from an overseas investor and land restitution money from the government, Solms-Delta foundered. By 2018 it had fallen apart, leaving the communities without work. The various upliftment projects that had been an integral part of the venture ...
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