Public pays for illegal dune clearing
The potjiekos competition fund raiser was held under the Trafalgar Sector Police banner.
PUBLIC funding, collected under the banner of an organisation committed to maintaining law and order, appears to have paid for the illegal cutting down of a primary dune at Trafalgar’s Blue Flag beach and the wholesale destruction of the natural Admiralty Reserve vegetation there.
According to a Trafalgar WhatsApp chat group post, headlined Trafalgar Sector Police, a potjiekos competition was to be held at a local restaurant last month. The proceeds from this would go ‘towards clearing the bush at the beach (which is a hiding place for vandals) and to build a wheelchair friendly deck on the beach’.
It is illegal to disturb the indigenous vegetation or to build structures in the Admiralty Reserve without proper authorisation. When the South Coast Herald asked the restaurant owner if he knew who had cleared the dune he said the ‘whole community’ had been responsible for this but would not comment about whether the Trafalgar Sector Police was involved.
After the dune was hacked enraged Trafalgar residents, including members of the Trafalgar Conservation Group and of the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (Wessa), reported the act of eco-vandalism to Paddy Norman, the chairman of the South Coast Branch of Wessa.
He immediately investigated the matter and reported it to Hibiscus Coast Municipality.
Mr Norman pointed out that Trafalgar beach was not only a blue flag beach but part of the Trafalgar Marine Reserve.
He said the damaged area was approximately 30m long by 8m wide, on two levels. The top of the dune had been cut down by about a metre in places to level it. With the exception of a row of tall aloes all vegetation had been removed and the sand fully exposed.
The plants removed had included stubby coastal red-milkwood trees, (Minusops caffra), which were specially protected, and dune aloes. The front of the dune was still largely intact, except near the lifeguards’ hut, where it had been seriously damaged.
When Hibiscus Coast Municipality and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs officials had inspected the site, vegetation clearing was still taking place. They had halted the destruction and questioned those doing the clearing. The matter was now subject to an official investigation, Mr Norman said.
Hibiscus Coast Municipality spokesman Simon April said more information would be available once the investigation had been completed.
Mr Norman thanked all the concerned people who had reported the matter.
“Now we need to keep up the pressure for a properly managed and implemented rehabilitation programme, paid for by the transgressor.”
The public needed to be aware that damaging the natural environment unnecessarily and without following proper procedures was a criminal act and would have unwelcome consequences, he said.
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