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Ever green at new estate

On the southern boundary of the municipality of Stellenbosch, neighbouring the Spier Estate, is a three hundred-hectare tract of land, which is made up of three productive wine farms: Kleine Zalze, Die Vleie and Grootte Zalze. Each of these wine farms was created by land grants to Dutch settlers in the late 1600s. It is now being developed as De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate, which will be uniquely beneficial for its visitors, residents and for the local community.

The estate languishes in the rural tranquillity of the Cape Winelands and will give its future residents a combination of scenic beauty, architectural integrity and sporting and cultural advantages. All of this will be `packaged' in a secure setting and one in which a `special area' within the estate has been designated to be managed in accordance with an environmental management system, approved by the local authority.

All this environmental integrity is wonderful news for the community, for the area and ultimately for the planned Boland Biosphere Reserve in which De Zalze will play an active and leading role. Everyone knows that a golf estate is not only attractive from a pastoral point of view but also from the aspect of security. De Zalze's management team could hardly overlook the necessity for security but needed to find a solution that would fit within the estate's declared environmental policies.

Blending in with a rural setting

A gleaming stainless steel fence might well do the requisite job of keeping out unwanted intruders but would be somewhat of an eyesore to visitors and residents alike. The panoramic views would be severely interrupted by a structure glinting in the Cape sunshine and would contradict everything that the estate currently boasts.

The fence has to be green, needs to be secure and strong and the contractors turned to South Africa's fencing champion - Bekaert Bastion for its ultimate solution.

The contractors - Nedsteel - used Bekaert's Fortinet Medium as well as Tanalith treated timber posts to blend in with the rural setting. Fortinet Medium is a welded mesh, made from galvanised wire that is electrically welded at every intersection and then plastic-coated in green. The horizontal wires have a crimp at every mesh to provide extra high-tensile weld strength.

Now complete, the project was undertaken in two phases, covering many kilometres of the estate's perimeter, worth a total of R2 million.

Fortinet Medium has also been chosen as the preferred environmentally appropriate security solution in many other well-known South African beauty spots and golf estates, including the Rondevlei Bird Sanctuary, Pearl Valley Golf Estate, the Table Mountain Cable Way and the Zevenwacht Wine Estate.

The De Zalze estate is still in the throes of selling to investors and future residents. Imagine the trouble the realtors would have if one of the main features - the surrounding views - was compromised in any way! The perimeter fencing system at De Zalze just has to be aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly, while providing maximum levels of security.

Concludes managing director of Bekaert Bastion, Michael Rodenburg, "The fence at De Zalze proves that effective, necessary and optimum perimeter security does not have to detract from the surrounding beauty."

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