Municipality plans to reopen a park in Westville
The Westville Conservancy hopes to work with the eThekwini Parks Department to preserve certain re-wilded areas in parks so that various animals can flourish.
THE eThekwini Municipality’s long-term plans to reopen a park in Westville have been welcomed by a local conservancy group which wants ‘pockets’ of the area to be untouched so that indigenous animal and plant life can thrive.
The municipality’s spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the concerns raised by residents, and in particular the Westville Conservancy, to preserve the natural environment at Mkhula Park, have been noted.
“The City has commenced a major clean-up project in the area, in collaboration with relevant municipal departments, to remove rubble and illegal dumping. As part of the park’s rehabilitation, regular grass cutting will resume monthly, restoring the standard maintained in previous years.
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“The long-term plan is to reopen the park for public recreational use in line with the municipality’s original development intent. This includes the installation of play equipment and benches in the 2025/2026 financial year,” said Sisilana.
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Westville Conservancy’s Sue Smith said the group is hoping to forge a formal agreement with the municipality’s parks department that would allow for fertile working relations.
She said such a working relationship would include agreements on demarcating certain areas in parks where, for example, grass can be allowed to grow for wildlife such as the KwaZulu Dwarf chameleon to thrive.
“This chameleon is endemic to KZN and is classified in the vulnerable category in the National Threatened or Protected Species list for reptiles according to SANBI, and it would be wonderful if some of our parks could remain home for these creatures.
“We are endeavouring to have a formal agreement with eThekwini Parks Department on each park in Westville, where we can agree on mow, no mow areas. Mowing is important so that the Parks always look neat and cared for. But we believe that it is also possible to maintain small re-wilded pockets for nature,” said Smith.
Read more about this in the next issue of the Highway Mail.
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