De Hollandsche Molen, a beautiful South African resort, turned into a nightmare when a fight between two families sparked huge accusations of racism. Social media blew up, claiming it was a racial attack and the resort tried to hide it. Now, police are digging into what really happened, and many people are angry, calling for the resort to lose its license.
De Hollandsche Molen, a South African resort, faced a social media firestorm and accusations of racism after a scuffle between two families was framed as a racial attack and management cover-up. This incident led to widespread outrage, calls for license revocation, and an ongoing police investigation into alleged physical violence and discriminatory practices.
For more than a hundred years De Hollandsche Molen has marketed itself as the spot “where memories are made,” a breezy estate that straddles the Franschhoek River midway between the wine village and the Paarl mountains. Brochures still promise moonlit braais, hayrides behind an old tractor and a yellow water-slide that dumps kids into a reed-ringed lagoon. That postcard cracked on 21 December, four nights before the resort’s busiest checkout morning, when a scuffle between two sets of campers was reframed on social media as a racial attack followed by a management cover-up.
Within twelve hours “De Hollandsche Molen racism” was the top regional trend on X, an online petition demanding that the council revoke the park’s holiday licence had collected 8 000 names, and the tiny Franschhoek police switchboard was jammed by callers from Cape Town talk-radio demanding to know why nobody had been arrested. The speed of the fallout startled even veterans of South Africa’s tourism trade, who are accustomed to the occasional racism flare-up but rarely see one detonate so close to peak-season cash registers.
The first detailed public account arrived in a 1 300-word thread posted by a 38-year-old IT project manager from Mitchells Plain. He asked the Sunday Tribune to keep his surname private to shield the minors in his group. Over five seasons, he wrote, his family endured a string of “micro-aggressions” that began when a white camper told his then eight-year-old daughter that “hotels suit your people better” and allegedly grew into warnings such as “stay away from our tents” and “residents-only shower block.” Managers, he insists, either rejected the complaints outright or said “no proof, no action.” The final spark, according to the post, flew when three of his teen relatives tried a riverside short-cut that cuts behind the premium grass stands booked year after year by the same Afrikaans families.
The IT manager claims a man in his late twenties “appeared from nowhere,” locked a forearm around the 19-year-old’s neck and yanked him backwards while shouting that “your lot” had already been “warned last year.” The two younger girls screamed, neighbouring campers poured in and, within minutes, the scene looked, in the writer’s words, “like a township brawl shot in slow motion.” A bystander’s cell-phone clip that circulated among staff shows a blur of bodies, a woman in a pink sun-hat swinging a camping chair and a teenager shrieking “they hit my sister!” No racial slurs can be heard; the footage stops when the recorder is shoved sideways. What the video does prove is that the punch-up began at 17:39 – two minutes before the timestamp management later logged.
By 18:15 the Mitchells Plain group had been marched to the front office. They say the duty manager told them: “Pack tonight – staying will only make it worse.” Two security guards shadowed them back to stand 147C, watched the tents collapse and escorted the convoy of two SUVs and a trailer off the property at 19:50. The other family – described by eyewitnesses as three generations of Bloemfontein regulars who have pitched their caravan on the same spot since 1998 – stayed put. Their white-and-blue caravan remained exactly where it always is, right through New Year’s Day.
The resort’s first public statement, released a full day after the post exploded online, called the incident “an isolated physical dispute” and insisted staff “took no side.” That wording was quietly revised twice. The third version, published ten days later, admitted that “earlier complaints of perceived discrimination had never reached executive level” and announced a package of fixes: a private security team wearing body-cams, a 22:00 curfew for unaccompanied minors and a “diversity liaison officer” loaned by a Stellenbosch NGO. From 15 December every new arrival had to sign a “Respect Code” that threatens an instant R5 000 fine plus eviction for racist language. Whether those rules can be enforced is murky: the property is classified as a caravan site, not a hotel, so it answers to the Western Cape Camping Sites Ordinance of 1975 – an old law that worries about ablution cleanliness, not hate speech.
Franschhoek’s year-round residents are roughly two-thirds coloured and Black, but the December calendar flips the ratio. Industry figures estimate that 85% of the 2 800 holiday stands spread across four private resorts are snapped up by white families, many driving down from Gauteng and the Free State. Internal De Hollandsche Molen data, shown to the Sunday Tribune on condition of anonymity, reveal that for the past three seasons darker-skinned visitors have clustered in the low-lying riverside quad staff nicknamed “the meadow,” while the elevated perimeter sites – those with private power boxes and en-suite bathrooms – are booked years ahead and passed like heirlooms within Afrikaans clans. Management claims allocation is strictly “first deposit, first served,” yet concedes that 40-year waiting lists for the plum stands are inherited within families, entrenching a quiet form of segregation.
Similar grievances have surfaced elsewhere. In 2018 a coloured family at Kogel Bay was ordered to leave after complaining about a neighbour’s apartheid-era flag; in 2020 a Black motorcycle club was refused entry to a Mpumalanga resort because, management said, “farmers worry about noise.” What sets the De Hollandsche Molen clash apart is the allegation of physical violence against teenagers and the counter-narrative – lodged by the Bloemfontein camper identified in the police file only as “Mr P. van der M.” – that he reacted in self-defence after the 19-year-old produced a pocket knife. No blade is visible in the bystander clip; detectives have bagged a blood-specked rock from the riverbank and sent it for DNA testing.
Attorney Nadia Booi, representing the Mitchells Plain family, says she will file a civil suit grounded in section 9 of the Constitution: the right to equal enjoyment of public amenities. She argues that by ignoring a pattern of discriminatory conduct the resort became an accessory. South African case law is scant: the only successful claim dates back to 1997, when a Durban caravan park paid R30 000 after a manager flung a racial slur at a Black holiday-maker. Inflated to today’s rands that award equals about R92 000, but Booi believes the psychological damage to minors justifies a claim “in the high six digits.” Insurers for De Hollandsche Molen have already briefed senior counsel; discovery is expected to demand internal e-mails and CCTV footage the resort says was “automatically overwritten after seven days.”
The provincial Tourism Department now faces calls to strip the park of its three-star grading. Minister Mireille Wenger has vowed “zero tolerance for racism in hospitality,” yet the grading council has no explicit racism clause; the harshest penalty available is withdrawal of star status, a largely symbolic step that would not shutter the gates. Far more painful may be the market itself: at least four corporate team-building bookings worth an estimated R1.2 million have already been cancelled, and the resort’s Facebook page is flooded with one-star reviews declaring “Apartheid camping still alive.”
Detective Sergeant Lindiwe Gqamana confirms that investigators have interviewed 17 witnesses, seized two phones and obtained medical notes consistent with choke-hold bruising. The docket must be handed to the senior public prosecutor in Paarl by the end of February. Until a decision comes, newly hired guards – two per shift in crimson bibs stamped “SECURITY” – continue torch-lit patrols past the rectangle of yellowed grass that was once stand 147C. Depending on whom you believe, that empty patch is either the scene of a racist ambush or the residue of a panicked over-reaction on a warm December night when two groups of holiday-makers discovered that the country’s oldest wounds have not yet closed.
De Hollandsche Molen, a South African resort, became the center of a social media storm and accusations of racism after a physical altercation between two families. This incident was quickly framed as a racial attack and a cover-up by management, leading to widespread public outrage, demands for the resort’s operating license to be revoked, and an ongoing police investigation into alleged violence and discriminatory practices.
The pivotal incident, a scuffle between the two families, happened on December 21st, four nights before the resort’s busiest checkout morning. The social media fallout and public outcry, however, began in earnest within 12 hours of an IT project manager’s detailed account being posted online.
The primary accusations against De Hollandsche Molen revolve around alleged systemic racism and discriminatory practices. A family from Mitchells Plain claims to have experienced years of “micro-aggressions” and ignored complaints, culminating in a violent altercation. They also accuse management of covering up the incident and showing bias by evicting only one of the families involved, while the other – a long-standing Afrikaans family – remained.
De Hollandsche Molen initially released a statement calling the incident an “isolated physical dispute” and claiming staff “took no side.” This statement was revised twice, with the third version admitting that “earlier complaints of perceived discrimination had never reached executive level.” The resort has since announced measures like a private security team with body-cams, a 22:00 curfew for unaccompanied minors, a “diversity liaison officer,” and a “Respect Code” threatening fines and eviction for racist language. However, the enforceability of these rules is questionable given the resort’s classification as a caravan site under an old ordinance.
Detective Sergeant Lindiwe Gqamana confirms that police investigators have interviewed 17 witnesses, seized two phones, and obtained medical notes consistent with choke-hold bruising. A blood-specked rock from the scene has also been sent for DNA testing. The docket is expected to be handed to the senior public prosecutor in Paarl by the end of February for a decision on potential charges. A civil suit, citing Section 9 of the Constitution regarding equal enjoyment of public amenities, is also being prepared by the Mitchells Plain family’s attorney.
The resort faces several serious consequences. These include the ongoing police investigation, a potential civil lawsuit seeking significant damages, and calls for the provincial Tourism Department to strip the park of its three-star grading. While a license revocation is unlikely due to the nature of the old ordinance, the negative publicity has already led to at least R1.2 million in cancelled corporate bookings and a flood of one-star reviews on social media, indicating significant market damage and reputational harm.
DJ Warras, a beloved radio DJ, was brutally murdered outside Zambesi House in Johannesburg while…
Cape Town's wine bars are breaking all the old rules, offering amazing and unique experiences.…
Cape Town's famous Klopse Parade is getting a big makeover in 2026! Instead of the…
Cape Town's Greenmarket Square, once a vibrant home for families, has become a playground for…
Cape Town is making big changes by 2025! They are spending billions to make water,…
Cape Town's trains are a wild, daily adventure! Imagine broken windows, cashonly tickets, and guards…