ABOUT US
Our Village before 1997...
Activity in the area is dated back to 1652, when Khoi pastoralists utilised the land for cattle grazing. Over the next 300 years the area together with the OM property located in the Liesbeeck Valley became the wheat producing area providing food for the Castle and citizens in the region. In 1693 the Dutch East India Company built the first mill in South Africa on the property. In the 1920’s the government built what became a psychiatric institution, part of which was built on the current site. In the early 1990’s, the East Wing of the institute was closed, abandoned and thereafter vandalised.
...and after 1997
The Oude Molen Eco Village was initiated in 1997 by a small group of proactive social entrepreneurs who, together with the local community and international volunteers, transformed the abandoned and vandalised hospital complex into a micro-enterprise village.The motivation was to alleviate poverty by pioneering a new and innovative way of maximising the potential of an underutilised public asset by; providing affordable space to emerging small enterprises to create employment opportunities, empower youth, promote urban agriculture and offer a variety of social and recreational activities to surrounding communities and local and international visitors while producing revenue for Provincial Government.
Map of Oude Molen Eco Village
