Groundswell of opposition to sale of Ballito’s Butterfly Park

At least a thousand qualified objections have so far been submitted against the proposed sale of Butterfly Park.

Butterfly Park refers to the 4 000m² portion of Townsend Park which the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) intends to sell to the Zululand Islamic Society for the purpose of building a mosque.

The announcement, by way of an advertisement in the November 11 edition of the Courier, has so far drawn widespread opposition from the Ballito community.

It is a continuation of the sale process that began in 2019, which saw similar condemnation at the time, with residents steadfast in their fight to keep one of Ward 30’s remaining green spaces untouched.

Given it is public land, the municipality opened an objection process last month which closes this Thursday, December 15.

This process is essentially a test of public opinion, which should in theory impact any final decision made by the municipality going forward.

The Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association (Docrra) has led the campaign against the sale, objecting to what they believe is an irregular sale of public land.

“We have taken a two-prong approach to the situation. Firstly, we sent a legal letter to KDM which has so far received no response. Secondly, we have monitored the objection process by asking residents to include us in their emails to the municipality, while also circulating a petition,” said Docrra chairman, Deon Viljoen.

Per Docrra’s count, which is inclusive of the emails and petition, around a thousand objections have so far been lodged.

This number is qualified, meaning all duplicates, bots and objections from residents outside of KwaDukuza have been excluded.

Objections made in writing, or emailed without including Docrra, are not counted, which indicates the number is likely to be higher still.

What remains unclear is if there is a set threshold for objections that would stop the process, or whether it is solely up to the discretion of council.

KDM had not responded to queries on the process at the time of print, last month opting not to comment while objections were ongoing.

What is clear however, is that Docrra will fight the process until the end.

“There are five steps in this process, the objection stage being only the first. There still needs to be a tender process, rezoning of the land, environmental impact assessment and actual construction of a building. We will be monitoring each of these stages,” said Viljoen.

So far, the sale process has been far from seamless, with KDM forced to issue an erratum notice and extension of the objection deadline.

This after citing incorrect legislation in the November 11 notice, which referred to an ordinance from 1939 that was specific to the then Transvaal, and incorrectly marking the size of the land as 400m².

Following the extension, objections to the sale can be lodged until this Thursday.

If you have not objected and would like to, you can email municipalmanager@kwadukuza.gov.za and copy admin@docrra.co.za.

Written objections must be addressed and submitted to the Office of the Municipal Manager, 14 Chief Albert Street, KwaDukuza, 4450.

The petition can be found at docrra.co.za.

The Zululand Islamic Society was contacted for comment, but none had been received at time of print.

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