POLOKWANE – The city’s nature lovers are not in favour of the Polokwane Municipality’s ambitious plans to establish an eco-estate on a portion of the local municipal nature reserve, with more than 350 interested persons vehemently opposing the idea during the Wildlife Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) Friends of Polokwane Nature Reserve AGM, that recently took place at the Polokwane Golf Club.
The chairperson of the society, Lisa Grosel said the proposed eco-estate is a questionable endeavour, since the city is already struggling to provide services to its current community and would have to then attend to supplying more resources for an elitist few.
“The reserve is one of the only protected remnants of the Polokwane plateau bushveld vegetation type in the world and is an important bird and biodiversity area boasting over 64 mammal species, 16 amphibian species, 68 reptile species, 361 bird species and a critically endangered vegetation biome.
An array of red data plant and animal species occur on this reserve,” Grosel explained and added that the reserve is a safe space for various recreational activities to occur such as cycling, walking, running, horse riding and game drives and plays a massive role in environmental education as schools and universities alike use this reserve on a continual basis and many research papers and projects have been based on the information and studies conducted on this reserve.
DA councillor in the municipality, Jacques Joubert said that with a level one biodiversity rating, a unique grassland area and the fact that a third of all birds documented in South Africa are present in this reserve among others, it’s clear that this area should not be tampered with.
Joubert explained that there are a number of processes to be concluded before the municipality’s dream could be a reality.
According to Joubert, the first step is detailed studies, followed by environmental authorisation, lodging of a township application and decision of the application by the Municipal Planning Tribunal.
Only thereafter comes the lodgement at the surveyor general to obtain an approved general plan and finally registration and proclamation of the township.
“We, however, feel that public funds will be wasted with the amount of specialist reports and other processes planned to be spent towards a project that clearly should not go ahead,” Joubert said and added that the DA vehemently opposed the initial item that served in council a couple of years ago, and believe that the money budgeted for the above processes could rather be utilised towards uplifting the reserve in general and addressing some of the concerns which the experts have raised.
The meeting concluded by stipulating that the Wessa Friends of Polokwane Nature Reserve will do everything in its power to ensure that no housing development takes place in the Polokwane Nature Reserve and that this critically endangered biome be preserved for the greater community of Polokwane and for the generations to come.
