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as they were consolidated into the Fishermen’s Flats’ development. In 1892 buyers from the

Estate of Johan Coenraad Wicht were:

 Erf 89936 George Powell the longtime resident of Kalk Bay, business owner, JP, and
member of the Management Committee.

 Erf 89938 Johannes Jacob Wicht (clearly a member of the family.)

 Erf 89939 Elizabeth Johanna Maskew, wife of Petrus Keytel Maskew – Government
Land Surveyor.

The first ownership is unimportant except to show that these were speculative buyers cashing

in on the sudden growth of Kalk Bay. All sold on within two years. It is not possible to
understand this historic part of Kalk Bay without giving some background to the people who

bought up the land and sometimes buildings. They then put up ‘cheap’ buildings for the

fishing families desperate for homes. They were effectively slum landlords.

The van Blerk family

The van Blerk family had been in the Fish Hoek valley for generations; they also owned huge

tracts of land in Kalk Bay including The Homestead in Anderson Road and the rights to the
waterfall on Boyes Drive. The following information about the van Blerk brothers has been

taken from the family website:

Gerhardus (Gert) Christiaan van Blerk was a long time resident of Kalk Bay and a member of
the of Kalk Bay Primary School Board. (Fig. 4.30.)

“Vincent Cloete, 76 in 2003, told me that (Gert) van Blerk was a respected but not

well liked man. He described him as an ‘egte Afrikaner’ who used to settle any
trouble amongst the fisher folk with a whip. His wife was also disliked. When

members of the community came with their containers to her dairy for milk she had a
pot of boiling water into which they dropped their money. “Gert’s Koppie” above

Clairvaux Road is named after him. He died suddenly on 29 September 1938 (when
Vincent Cloete was about 12 years old). Gert had lived in the still existing, though

altered house, “Clairvaux” about half way up Clairvaux Road. Vincent Cloete gave

me the following rhyme which the folk used to quote, though in his opinion Gert was
not lazy.