He planned on transforming the park, situated on the corner of Sarel Cilliers Street and McClean Road, opposite Rus ‘n Bietjie Old Age Home, into a wildlife sanctuary.
When he handed in a proposal to the metro’s parks and recreation department in September, he expected cooperation from them.
• Read: Exciting plans for Frikkie Deysel Park
Instead, he claims, his proposal was not even an option for discussion.
Fourie asked the metro for assistance with the cleaning of the existing pond and to erect a fence around the park.
“I didn’t expect the metro to develop the park. All I asked for was [for them] to assist and maybe be joint partners in the transformation – the rest I would have done at my own expense,” he says.
The dam is currently home to quite a large bird population which, Fourie feels, needs to be protected.
“Reeds have taken over the alleged wetland and I wonder if the metro has any plans to at least maintain the pond,” says Fourie.
According to metro spokesman Themba Gadebe, metro parks department manager Lindiwe Makubalo recently met with Fourie on site with personnel who deal with wetlands.
“These people indicated that the dam is a wetland and Fourie was advised on which procedures to follow to ensure that his proposal gets attention.”
• Also read: Avid bird-watchers flock to Marievale Bird Sanctuary
Ward councillor Dean Stone is disappointed with the metro’s decision not to upgrade the park.
Environmentalist Charl van der Merwe disagrees with the metro and says the pond is man-made and was designed for rehabilitation purposes.
“The pond was built to control the flow of storm water from the roads and was designed with a silt trap which used to be maintained in winter.
“If metro had maintained the silt trap, the pond wouldn’t have silted up,” says Van der Merwe.
