Polokwane eco-estate opposition intensifies

POLOKWANE – Residents of Polokwane are vehemently opposed to the municipality’s plans to develop an eco-estate on land which currently forms part of the local game reserve.

This was quite evident during a well-attended public participation meeting that was hosted at Tom Naudé Technical High School last Wednesday evening.

None of the interested persons attending the event spoke in favour of the development, although some contended that it may be allowed at any other location.

The municipality’s agent, Caiphus Mukwevho of Great Warthog Group, opened the meeting and said the public participation meeting was one of the first stages of the process towards proclamation of the eco-estate, comprising 132 residential erven, 27 open spaces and one government facility, covering 150,6ha of the game reserve’s 3 500ha.

Mukwevhu conceded that his brief did not include a study of any alternative location. “We were instructed to proceed with the application on this particular piece of land,” he said.

During the question-and-answer session, the chairperson of the Wildlife Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) Friends of Polokwane Nature Reserve (FOPNR), Lisa Grosel strongly opposed the development and reckoned that the proposed eco-estate is a questionable endeavour, since the city is already buckling with providing services to its current community and would have to then attend to supplying more resources for an elitist few.

Prof Derek Engelbrecht emphasised that the reserve is one of the only protected remnants of the Polokwane plateau bushveld vegetation type in the world and that it 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 and added that an array of red data plant and animal species occur in the reserve.

Mark Mockford stressed that inadequate municipal services is already a challenge and that the facility is meant for the people of Polokwane to enjoy and not for developers to profit from.

DA municipal ward councillor Mariette Pretorius suggested that the municipality identify some other land, of which it has plenty, for the development and stay away from the conserved area.

DA spokesperson on land use, spatial development and local economic development in the municipality, Jacques Joubert said that the DA in Polokwane feels vindicated for initially voting against the planning phase of the proposed development.

“As the reserve is a level one biodiversity reserve, the development is not advisable and the DA is of the view that the funds spent on the planning phase could rather have been spent on upgrading and maintaining the reserve and its facilities in order to promote the eco-tourism possibilities,” Joubert said and added that Polokwane is in a privileged position to have a game reserve on its footstep, for residents to enjoy and benefit from.

“If we start with this development in the reserve, we are concerned that this would only be the start of even more development,” he argued.