Reserve gate kept safe until fixed
An official from City Parks confirmed that the missing gate has not been stolen but is being kept safe until it can be fixed.
The gate at the Ruimsig Butterfly Reserve has not been stolen, but it is with a neighbour for safekeeping. This was confirmed by Phillip Mkhombo from the environmental and conservation department at City Parks.
On July 31, Astri Leroy and her husband noticed the gate standing open with one half taken down. They contacted Phillip and when he arrived, the gate was gone and the residents presumed it had been stolen.
Phillip said a call has been logged and they are currently waiting for technicians to fix the gate. “We are working with limited capacity because of Covid-19 but the gate is not missing, it is with the neighbour. The gate fell off, however, the broken gate is not the access gate. It is the second gate and it is excluded from the conservation area,” he explained.
“We regularly check on the reserve because we live nearby,” the concerned resident began. “We are concerned about the biodiversity in the area. Towards the end of last month, we noticed that the padlock on the gate had been forced and the gate was standing open. I tied it together with wire and informed Phillip who immediately replaced the padlock.”
The Ruimsig Butterfly Reserve was established in 1985 to preserve the tiny population of the critically endangered butterfly, The Roodepoort Copper. The original fence around the reserve was not very strong and earlier this year Phillip, despite facing many obstacles, arranged to have a really good palisade fence erected to stop people using the reserve as a shortcut, and to protect the sensitive veld and irreplaceable butterflies.
