Berta van Rooyen, Tokai
The readers saw two series of letters supporting opposing views recently.
For the record, statistics for petitions supported by affidavits, see par. [55] of the judgment, 1 March 2017: Parkscape 2065, Friends of Tokai Park (FoTP): 2795. Membership: [19]: 2000 for Parkscape.
Fynbos is a UNESCO heritage marker with unlimited support locally, nationally and internationally.
Parkscape has members in Stellenbosch and supporters in Nelspruit, according to a local newspaper, and Pretoria where apparently Ms Schmidt had a radio interview.
Fynbos is an Afrikaans word: Afrikaans (3rd most to Zulu and isiXhosa) spoken by 6.85 million speakers to English with 4.9 million in the 2011 census.
The Western Cape, where fynbos grows abundantly, is home to the most Afrikaans-speakers (2.8 million). To change fynbos to “heathland”, is a smack at the Afrikaans speaking group and the heritage of fynbos, locally, nationally and internationally. SANParks did indeed talk to people.
Interested and affected parties who attended the discussion of the 10-year management plan (2015-2025) will remember the discussion of the Tokai Cecilia Management Framework, in early March 2015, while the fire was encroaching on Tokai.
But Parkscape was only formed in June 2016. Several questions asked by Nicky Schmidt were answered by Paddy Gordon, see People’s Post June 282016; the meeting at Alphen, July 2016; and SANParks in the Constantiaberg Bulletin, August 2016.
The readers are waiting apologies for “Fynbos kills”, that SANParks and Dr Rebelo are partly to blame for the teenager’s death and the verification of the many dogs killed by puffadders…
Reasons for the forming of Parkscape in the 2016 affidavit, par. 17, are very similar to the reasons why the Constantia ratepayers want to keep exotic vegetation as heritage. Two researchers from different disciplines point out a preference to an European lifestyle linked to exotic vegetation. Is this fair to South Africa?