In July 2006, the Friends of the Haenertsburg Grassland lodged an application with the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) to have the Haenertsburg Town and Townlands 1103-LS proclaimed a site of Ecological significance. The Biodiversity section comprising of a herpetologist and a botanist of LEDET came to the site and recommended that because the area was so important to conserve it should be declared a nature reserve. To date, the Protected areas section of LEDET is busy with the paperwork to have this area declared a nature reserve in co-operation with the Department of Public Works who are the current land owners. In the interim period, two illegal occupations of the grassland have been attempted by two persons with different economic background.
Illegal Fence Erected by Mr J.P. Fourie
In October 2007, an adjacent property owner, Mr. J.P. Fourie, Executive Director of National Airways Corporation, bulldozed a large section of the proposed nature reserve, destroying some silver oaks and other forest trees in the forest-grassland margin, as well as two grassland plants(Scadoxus and Ceropegia) protected by the Limpopo Environmental Management Act. LEDET and the Department of Public Works were alerted by community members and the activity was halted.
On 7 August 2008, Mr. J.P. Fourie again started fencing property that did not belong to him. This time he took a smaller area, excluding the grasslands but fenced the entire forest. Community members were upset as a precedent was set whereby land belonging to the Department of Public Works was taken by a private individual without formal authorisation. The authorities lobbied to stop this illegal activity. Although assurances were given, no formal correspondence or action was taken to resolve the matter.
A petition was completed by 165 community members against the illegal fencing and taken to the petitions committee of the Limpopo legislature. Although in November 2010 a response letter was received from the petitions committee saying that the matter would be thoroughly investigated and reported on over a year later nothing more has been forthcoming. To date, 11 phone calls have been made to Ms Joyce Malatji asking for feedback, but nothing has changed and the illegal fence remains standing.
The community objected because:
- Mr. J.P. Fourie fenced property which did not belong to him and without authorisations.
- Members of the ZCC occasionally obtain holy water from this spring and can no longer exercise their traditional right.
- By fencing off the area, one of two springs is cut off and can no longer be accessed by wild animals.
- The fence intrudes on the forest-grassland ecotone which is has unique biodiversity and is an important part of the proposed nature reserve.
- There is strong community objection to the illegal section of fence as the Haenertsburg community have a vision that this should be a community natural resource reserve which benefits all the people of Limpopo not just one person. To this effect educational pamphlets, a hiking trail and an Environmental Management Plan have been produced mostly by volunteers.
- White roan, impala and other antelope are being illegally kept on the property. The Environmental Inspectorate of the LEDET lodged a case with the local police in October 2011 but to date no other action has been taken by the authorities.
Illegal Sale of Stands by Mr N.R. Kgopa
The second case study began on Sunday 31 July 2011. Mr. N.R. Kgopa started staking out plots on the Haenertsburg Grasslands. He said that this land was legally his in terms of the Land Claims process and that he was demarcating plots to be sold to members of his community. Again the community of Haenertsburg alerted the authorities that an area of biodiversity was being impacted on. In a meeting of authorities and local people it was minuted that activities by Mr Kgopa where illegal for two reasons:
- The land was under claim by the Mammabolo community of which Mr Kgopa was not a member.
- The area in question has never been disturbed and therefore to develop it would require an Environmental Impact Assessment.
On 14 September 2011, the Environmental Management Inspectorate of LEDET issued Mr Kgopa a compliance order. This was supported by the Office of the Chief Land Claims Commissioner and activities were stopped.
Conclusion
In both cases, the slowness with which the authorities responded to protect the provinces most important vegetation type, Woodbush Granite Grassland was disturbing as species that are on the Red Data list were being impacted on. Both Fourie and Kgopa took land that did not belong them and broke the same environmental legislation. Both encountered considerable public opposition and the authorities were lobbied to take action. To date, only Kgopa has been stopped which raises the question whether economic inequality is prevailing in South Africa.
Cathy Dzerefos - Cathy Dzerefos has an M.Sc. (Ecology) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
