KNYSNA NEWS – A dispute over an unfinished building on Thesen Islands threatens to turn into a full-scale battle as pro and anti factions appear to be sharpening their swords for a final showdown. 

In one corner is the Thesen Islands Home Owners Association (TIHOA), who obtained a court interdict to block further building to what it claims is an illegal construction, and in the other a contingent of residents opposed to the costly efforts by the TIHOA to halt further building at the site. 

The building was earmarked to harbour apartments, offices and a restaurant/retail outlet.

A sensational article in a Sunday national newspaper this weekend likened the rumpus in the upmarket gated community to the power play in the TV drama Game of Thrones saying the owner, André Schempers, has taken to calling his unfinished façade "Winterfell".

The conflict has degenerated into a shambolic mess of mutual name-calling, threats and lawsuits.

According to the article, home-owner trustees apparently approached the High Court earlier this year to obtain an urgent interdict against one resident, Trent Rossini, to prevent him from impugning their dignity with inflammatory comments (such as "I am getting the feeling that the lunatics have taken over the asylum") on an online forum.

Rossini in turn told the paper that he has opened a criminal case against the husband of a homeowners association trustee, Niel Lurie, for allegedly threatening his mother during a phone call from the development's gate house. He also alleges Lurie called him a c*** in an e-mail sent to residents, the article said.

Lurie apparently claimed that he made the call to Rossini because his cat was stuck in Rossini's garage. Rossini has refuted the claim that a cat was in his garage.

In a letter to KPH, Lurie's wife Sam admitted that her husband "used foul language in an email as a knee jerk reaction to particularly nasty and untrue claims by Rossini, that the tendency to lie runs in the Lurie family, in his emails to the GM of Thesen Islands, of which we were copied". 

She also stated that Rossini's defamatory allegations and accusations against the trustees, claiming that they are "dodgy, liars and lunatics" is "ongoing, consistently abusive, belittling" and meant to discredit some of them by attacking their business reputations and families.

"Freedom of speech is one thing, slander, denigration and humiliation is entirely different," she said.

'Actual reasons'

In the meantime the Knysna Ratepayers Association has called the entire debacle a red herring and a distraction from the actual reasons for the dispute.

"The controversy that has developed around the building has nothing to do with cats stuck in garages or choice language," it stated this week. "The fact is that the approval of the building plans is illegal and the [former municipal town planning manager] Hennie Smit lost his job last week for illegally approving the plans, not once, but twice."

KRA chairperson Susan Campbell said that after the approval of the plans the trustees went to court to have the permission revoked.

"Thesen Islands owners who support the owner of the building, André Schempers, are running a social media campaign to discredit the trustees with the objective of taking over and pulling the plug on the court case," she said.

Sam Lurie concurs. She says allegations are levelled against a subset of trustees who, Rossini made clear, "need to resign or be replaced by himself or others in the group".

"The case has dragged on for two years," she said. Schempers, the owner of the building, who claims to have been financially ruined by the building interdict, has delayed the court action at every opportunity.

"He has made it very clear, as have Rossini and co, that once the new board is in place, the new board will cease to oppose the unlawful plans. It is obvious the constant baiting and delays are linked to a well-orchestrated campaign to inflame ordinary members, to discredit the trustees and to assist Schempers their friend."

She said the board has asked the court to set aside the approval. "The fact that Hennie Smit, the planning manager, who had been suspended for more than a year, was found guilty by an independent presiding officer regarding this particular case, vindicates the board's judgment. We remain of the opinion that the construction could denigrate our property values, especially those properties bordering these bulked-up commercial buildings. We bought into a rigorously controlled scheme and now, 15 years later, the town planning controls implemented at the time of approval are being largely ignored."

He said, he said This week Trent Rossini told KPH, "Our data shows that Thesen Islands HOA members want an AGM so that appropriate trustees can be elected and the Island's standing as a sought-after residential estate can be restored.

"Unfortunately, the AGM has been delayed for more than eight months due to claimed reservations with electronic voting (electronic voting is a request from the majority of members given the many residents living outside Knysna and the Covid context)." 

He said the messy situation is better associated with "a reality series such as Tiger King than Thesen Islands." About Lurie's statements, Rossini said, "My only response is to ask the Luries if they have found their cat yet".

According to the Sunday Times article Schempers said that he was being unfairly targeted by the trustees and had the support of the Thesen Islands Commercial Owners Association.

Yesterday he queried why the KRA did not object to the notice they received from the Knysna Municipality that the owner of the property on TH1 (Schempers) had applied for a departure to increase the height of the building to three storeys.

The structure that caused all the trouble: Knysna's very own 'Winterfell'.
Photo: Blake Linder

He said that two of the current trustees of Thesen Islands Homeowners Association, namely Sam Lurie and Mark Williams, would have been aware of the application for a heights departure because they were also on the exco of the KRA at the time.

He did not respond to Lurie's statements to the press.

The KRA denied that the application was brought to the notice of the KRA committee in 2016 and said Sam Lurie and Mark Williams only joined the KRA exco later in 2017.

Knysna Acting Municipal Manager Dawid Adonis confirmed Hennie Smit's dismissal but said Smit still has the right to appeal the outcome or follow other legal processes. "We therefore cannot comment on the grounds for dismissal," he said.

ALSO READ: Thesen Islands' Winterfell, step by step

Regarding the building on Thesen Islands, the municipality has refrained from making statements. "We have received correspondence from the attorneys of the Thesen Islands Homeowners Association (TIHOA) which we have referred to our attorneys of record in the matter," Adonis said. 

"We will respond to the TIHOA representatives regarding their client's position insofar as it relates to the municipality and will regrettably not make any statements in the media."

Hennie Smit declined to comment, saying that there is potentially an appeal process underway.

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