The owners of two holiday cottages built in the protected iSimangaliso Wetland Park have finally agreed to demolish them.
|||Durban - Two owners of holiday cottages built in the protected iSimangaliso Wetland Park have finally agreed to demolish them after insisting for years that they had permission from Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini to build there.
On Wednesday, when they were set to fight their case in the Durban High Court, Adriaan van Tonder, of Richards Bay, and Cules Hamman, of Pongola, instead signed settlement agreements with park authorities, undertaking to demolish by January their holiday homes built two decades ago near the banks of Lake Nhlanga in Kosi Bay.
Park authority chief executive Andrew Zaloumis described the settlements – which were made orders of court – as significant because the construction of the two structures pre-dated the park’s listing as a World Heritage Site.
It also brought to 44 the number of unauthorised and illegal developments removed – including the clearing of campsites, small holiday camps and cottages and large commercial developments – to fulfil the commitments made by South Africa to Unesco and the World Heritage Committee following the park’s listing in 1999.
In his affidavit, filed in the demolition application, Van Tonder says he has lived on the site, on and off, since 1992 with the blessing of the tribal council, the Ingonyama Trust, and with the “blessing of the king”.
Hamman claims to have similar permission and, in a supporting affidavit, Mbonisi Bhekithemba Zulu, a prince and brother of the king, who is the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust Board, confirmed that the king had approved of the decision allowing Hamman to use the site and build the structure.
The induna for the area, Fikizolo Ngubane, said in his affidavit that Hamman had approached him to build a dwelling on the site next to Van Tonder and, at a community meeting, it had been unanimously agreed.
He said that Hamman had become a “lawful citizen” of the community and a khonza fee (a subject’s fee) of R1 000 had been paid. “This process is always followed when a person wants to obtain land or a site in our community,” he said.
But the trust itself supported the park authorities in their attempt to have the structures demolished, claiming that no authority had been given to either men to build on the site, which was in contravention of a plethora of environmental conservation laws.
Zaloumis said that in several judgments handed down in matters involving illegal developments, the courts had indicated that traditional and community leadership had a clear responsibility to educate their people about the park, its listing and the laws that governed it. He said that in many cases, developments were built and financed by upcountry people who used fronting agents from the community.
He said that in a recent criminal matter, eManguzi (Kosi Bay) magistrate N Groom urged communities “to avoid being exploited and abused by people who are coming from other provinces”.
Zaloumis said the intention was not to disenfranchise people who had legitimate rights to the land, but to remove people who had attempted to appropriate rights to which they were not entitled.
“We needed to be pragmatic and reasonable and encouraged voluntary compliance. When developers did not take up the offer, we pursued them in civil and criminal cases,” Zaloumis said.
The Mercury