Rimers saga flare up once more

Eight years ago, after a notice of “Application for Amendment of the Umjindi Town Planning Scheme” was placed in one of the June 2007 Lowvelders, a petition was lodged with Umjindi Municipality signed by nearly 500 members of the community.

This was to oppose the projected rezoning of a part of Rimers Creek for light industrial purposes and was handed over to the municipality on July 4. The petitioners say this also followed the illegal bulldozing of the site in May 2007. According to them it took place without the correct procedures for alienating public open space, any environmental-impact assessment (EIA), heritage-impact assessment (HIA), or rezoning approval taking place.

In a document received by Barberton Times, one of the paragraphs read, “Around the same time, the community became aware of the need for an EIA, that the municipality had been advised that no EIA was necessary and they also discovered that a conditional deed-of-sale agreement had been entered into in April 2007 between Umjindi Municipality and the applicant (Leadal Investment Properties known locally as Irricon) who had outgrown their space in the zoned commercial area and wanted to move into the public open space in Rimer’s Creek.

” The petitioners argued that this part of the creek was an irreplaceable and well-loved part of Rimers, and part of the town’s history. Chris Rippon, spokesman representing the original petitioners, said they are not anti-development. “We strongly believe that Rimer’s Creek must remain public open space as it has been for more than 100 years – and that any development must be in keeping with the historical tourism code.”
According to him, no alternative sites were put forward by the applicant during the EIA process, which is apparently a prerequisite for such a process.
“We do feel that a heavy-load truck-parking and pipe-storage facility can be accommodated elsewhere and not on an irreplaceable heritage site and public park.”

The end result of the rezoning objections was a tribunal hearing on November 13, 2007 and a subsequent decision by Umjindi Town Council on February 7, 2008 that rezoning would be subject to the outcome of the EIA and related requirements being in line with the intended zoning of the land. After an eight-year battle to prevent the rezoning, the interested and affected parties recently won their appeal against an environmental authorization that was issued by the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (Dardlea) on August 12, 2013.

“However, before finalisation of the appeal process and without the knowledge of the community – and despite an assurance to the contrary, Umjindi Municipality transferred the land to the applicant,” said Rippon.

In the meantime, Irricon has begun work on this part of Rimers and Managing Director, Peter Lea said he can understand the frustration and disappointment of the small group of people amongst the I&EP’s, but in the end justice was done.
“I fought this issue, not only for myself, but also because it is not in the interest of the Barberton business community to allow a small group of people to hijack the future expansion of their business in our town. It has been an expensive and uphill battle that I have endured and the out pouring of emotional outburst from certain people has not gone unnoticed,” said Lea.

Lea went further and gave a list of issues he believes the interested and affected parties failed to highlight:

• The area in question is not a heritage site
• It was the dumping grounds of the old BIAS foundry and was not untouched land
• The position of the stream was moved from its original course after the completion of the dam in Rimers Creek
• The activity that triggered the initial EIA has now been delisted and hence no assessment is now required
• Dardlea stated in a letter sent to one of its members that “some of the aspects raised by the appellants on the grounds of the appeal go way beyond what the registered interested and affected parties are entitled to comment on an application”
• LEADAL has been granted permission by the department to carry on with their development and should the I&EP’s want to take this issue any further then they can take the department to the High Court.

Barberton Times also contacted the offices of the municipal manager and received the following response from its office, “A notice of a motion in accordance with the provisions of the municipality’s standing orders, with regard to the very same issue, has been submitted by the DA. This motion still needs to be debated by council. In view of this the matter is regarded to be sub judice.”

In the meantime, the saga continues and these petitioners, all part of the local community are outraged.
“ Rimer’s Creek is the historical heart of Barberton and considered sacrosanct by the local community. It is where the town was born in 1884 when David Wilson, the mining commissioner, broke a bottle of gin on a rock and christened the town Barberton. It is the place where the Barber brothers discovered gold in 1884, leading to a gold rush, and the disputed area is the site of the historical Central Mill (established by JC Rimer and the Barber Brothers) where the first gold-bearing ore was crushed and processed,” said Marjorie Nuns, an I&AP in the EIA process, in a document addressed to Barberton Times.

She also wrote “The site is also surrounded and overlooked by the museum, a church, several registered heritage buildings and residential properties, all linked by the Barberton Heritage Walk – a popular tourist attraction – directly abutting and overlooking the site at the Belhaven heritage home.”
Nuns also wrote that to date, despite requests for information over a month ago from both Dardlea and the municipality, nothing has been forthcoming from the department and nothing meaningful from the municipality.

Rippon said that of major concern to the petitioners is the total lack of transparency and the non-compliance with established procedures that has dominated this issue over the past eight years. “The whole saga shows a shocking disregard for the law and a total disregard for the rights of the ordinary citizen to have an input into these decisions.”

Lea said, “I have no intention of getting into any further debate over this issue and as far as I am concerned the issue is now closed, it is time to move on.”