Eco Guides in the Garden Route

Many thanks to those of you who sent e-mails of support about the erf 431 situation. I’m afraid its not a situation I can resolve; I’m not even a rate payer. My role lies merely in bringing it to the attention of the public and Friends of Pledge in particular as it is a situation that impacts negatively on the Reserve, particularly on future development. The more serious issue that affects all ratepayers is what the Municipal files reflect - senior employees in the Corporate Division taking the law into their own hands and, for a whole year, sidestepping questions to either vindicate their actions or, if they are unable to do so, come clean.

The ball was passed to Ed Hill whose response is rejected for reasons outlined in my previous e-mail. He has now passed it back to where it should be, the court of the Municipal Corporate Division

Knysnarians can either ignore the fact that the absence of transparency in the Corporate Division and what appears to be collusion with a developer is a step towards a situation in which the Council degenerates into a group of people who meet and are paid millions of rands by the ratepayers while the real decision makers are a handful of people at the apex of an empire. Alternately, they can react to this situation by requesting the Municipal Manager, Mr Johnny Douglas, to provide an acceptable explanation for the disposal of erf 431 to a developer without public knowledge. Mr van Schalkway maintains that Municipal land does not have to be used for the purpose for which it is expropriated. No problem if there is public participation. On the other hand, to use public money to expropriate for public puposes then quietly dispose of it and not be able to account for the disposal some 10 years later, is not acceptable. In principle, you could well end up having your view of the lagoon blocked by a soccer stadium on land expropriated for a butterfly reserve!

Phrases like “…so what can you do?” and ” Its all over the country” are a cop-out, especially in a place like Knysna with its high proportion of educated and professional people. Friends of Pledge are not considered to be amongst the ostriches so please speak out. I’d like to receive your e-mails, and those of friends who believe in good, transparent governance, for forwarding to Mr Douglas.

Regards, Jill

……….. herewith my response to Ed Hill

Mr Ed Hill’s response to my letter concerning the disposal of public erf 431 is appreciated but it fails to shed light on the mystery and is misleading in certain respects.

Council did not sell erf 431 in 2001. They accepted an Offer to Purchase subject to conditions to be fulfilled in 240 days, failing which the sub-lease agreement of the erf would remain in force. Despite a time extension to 728 days until 31 December 2003, with or without Council’s consent, the offer fell through as the major shareholder of the company holding the lease was unable to cede and transfer its rights in lease and development to a Cape Town based company in November 2003. Consequently, erf 431 was not sold by December 2003 . The bank approved new shareholders and bonds on title and lease in 2004. The Municipality issued instructions to proceed with transfer in 2005. On what basis? Despite a formal request to the Municipality for documentation relating to a new agreement between the current major shareholder-developer to negate the story told by the Municipal files, none has been forthcoming and the public is still in the dark. Surely it is not possible to consolidate private land with public land held by lease for the development of privately owned residential units? Was 431 sold to the current developer or was it given to him?

The ‘back of building’ effect is no justification for support of a revised development concept by Town Planning as it was not relevant to SDP 2. The shops did not back onto Pledge but were on the walkway and presented Pledge with the opportunity of leasing one of the two shops facing onto the Reserve as a refreshment and information centre. This SDP also had residential units overlooking the Reserve as an aid to security. Mr Hill’s arguments are irrelevant and no justification for separating the Reserve from the hub of public activity by a flatland development, on erven zoned for business, in a 3rd SDP applying for a departure from the zoning scheme parameter as well as a departure from the height restriction (12 m is allowed for business, 10 for residential)

In his comment for the Mayoral Committee meeting of 20 July 2006 Mr Hill refers to SDP 2 submitted in August 2005. “The surrounding owners , including Pledge Nature Reserve, were notified of the amended SDP in September 2005 and no objections were received…. In March 2006 the consultants indicated that a new proposal would be submitted. The current proposal…was submitted in May 2006. (SDP3). The comment does not point out that neighbours were not informed of the change of concept or what the implications are for the public and Pledge Nature Reserve.

Mr Hill lists the conditions for approval of the SDP3 development, none of which have been met by the developer He also applies Pledge’s approval of SDP 2 of 18 April 2006 to the altered SDP3 submitted in May 2006. In law. an Agreement requires consensus between parties. The Municipality is happy to accept the fact that the developer will not make himself available for a round table discussion. Mr Hill’s response was the longest made to date but fails to address the core issue that is at the root of the problem, the disposal of erf 431in 2004 and the consequent stance of the Municipality and the developer whose actions and attitudes create the impression that the latter is the legal owner of erf 431, acquired with public knowledge in competition with other interested parties in Knysna ( including Pledge Nature Reserve which, as a legal entity, can purchase property) If this is the case, all the Municipality needs to do is come up with acceptable documentation. If not, the answers lie with the Municipality, their attorneys and the developer and can be found in the months between January and June 2004.

Jill Dempere

If you have never seen a skaapsteeker (initially mistaken night adder), here it is displayed by our smiling Wednesday worker, Austen. It was probably killed by a ferel cat but we made very sure before picking it up. Snakes have a tendency to ‘come back from the dead’ The markings are similar to that of the puffie but the slim head tells us it could be another kind of adder.

I’m also attaching a very interesting e-mail about hedges for garden entrepeneurs. It came after some excellent drawings form my artist friend in England. … regards, Jill

These twisted and gnarled hedges that I`m drawing at the moment are very, very old…. and the method in winter is to cut a branch halfway through so that it`s actually “hanging” on a small bit of it`s bark, then push the branch down so that to lies parallel to the ground within the hedge.

You do this to all the branches, then in Spring the hedge will produce huge masses of new growth in the cut place, as well as sending up lots of new shoots all along the length of the parallel branch.
This creates a thicker hedge as well.
But the wonderful thing about this method is that the hedge is then given a new lease on life, and instead of simply getting thinner and thinner each year from cutting it at the top, it now has an extension on it`s life…. and hedge that is “layered” (as it`s called) like this, will live for up to 300 years or more!

And another bonus to this method, is that wherever these branches that are pushed down, touch another branch, they grow together (fuse) so that you end us with incredibly beautifull or bizarre shapes within the hedge.

But you have to layer the hedge every number of years otherwise it will just bolt upwards.
In the old days when farms had a lot of labourers on the farms, there were always people working on the hedges every winter. But nowadays no one seems to bother to keep up this layering tradition, and many of the ancient hedges are dying and rotting away…. they send up tall shoots, which then becaome thick and tree-like and these catch the wind, and because the base is so old, the whole thing gets blown over and dies.

So I`m trying to capture and record some of the layered hedges around this area, in drawings.
These layered hedges were usually used as definite land boundaries 300+ years ago, and so it is possible to see the layout of ancient farms by following these hedges.
You are not allowed to remove then or cut them down, by law, but there is no law against neglect, unfortunately.

The whole of the UK is criss-crossed by thousands upon thousands of miles of ancient hedges like this, and they all tell a story about the area, and the farmsteads from yesteryear. I just love them.

Hello - five blooming poppies. Not enough to ensure their survival but a start. In the two minutes I pointed the camera at this one it was visited by a small unknown wasp, an unknown insect and an unknown fly.There is more to pollination than the bees. One of the petals, as fragile as the finest tissue paper, dropped to the ground. Later, I found the other three leading to my door, the third on the step.

The only species of African poppy has all but disappeared from Knysna. What an amazing symbol it is of our ignorance and of the fragility of the natural world. It’s also a symbol of the fragility of the institutions that hold our ideals. We bloom in prosperity with little thought of the hundreds of bloody years that accompanied the evolution of democracy and capitalism and no thought of the years to come. Democracy is not a state achieved but one that requires hard work.