Vision Vlottenburg
The Area
Vlottenburg is surrounded by hills planted with vineyards, olive trees and different orchards. Situated approximately 8km from Stellenbosch and 28km from Cape Town, it is surrounded by several wineland farms like Neethlingshof, Overgaauw, Asara, Uiterwyk, Bonfoi, Jordan, Skilpadvlei, Longlands, Vredenheim and a Wine Cellar, Stellenbosch Hills (previously known as Vlottenburg Wynkelder). Vlottenburg also has its own Brandy Cellar. Some of the farm houses have been turned into guest houses like Wedgeview, Sandrift, Stellenbosch 33, Uiterwyk and a few more. Vlottenburg is surrounded by the Helderberg, Stellenboschberg and even Simonsberg in the distance. The name Vlottenburg was given by late Miss S Le Roux in the early 1900.
The majority of the people living in Vlottenburg are farm labourers. Although Vlottenburg is surrounded by so much beauty, there is so much poverty. The poor call it the ‘forgotten place’. The unemployment rate is very high and housing is a great concern. People live in shacks. Some people have no electricity, running water or toilet facilities. Establishing proper housing and infrastructure for the Vlottenburg community is critical.
The non existent health care structure is an issue as well. Vlottenburg does not have a clinic. A mobile clinic visits once a month. This means that people must go to Stellenbosch Hospital or Stellenbosch Clinic for treatment and, as it is a far journey for the many people without vehicles, this means that many preventable illnesses go untreated. The TB rate and HIV rate is very high and teenage pregnancies are common. Alcohol abuse and the use of the drug ‘tik’ is also a very big problem that affects the older people and the lives of the young people.
Vlottenburg has a Primary School of about 500 children, but no High School. The High School learners are transported daily to a secondary school in another village called Jamestown.
There have two cafés. People have to take long taxi rides to Stellenbosch to do their shopping but only some can afford this. The elderly and disabled live on State grants. Many of the children get paid foster grants once a month.
The community enjoy sport like soccer, netball and rugby, but Vlottenburg does not have proper sport facilities.
There are various activities in the community like arts and craft classes, a feeding scheme, knitting classes, computer classes, HIV awareness workshops, music classes for guitar and trumpet. There are also awareness workshops for teenagers relating to teenage pregnancy, drugs and life skill workshops.*
Interesting Facts
• Most people in the area speak Afrikaans and are ‘coloured’.
• Most of the employed work in the wine industry as farmers or farm workers.
