Activists left fuming over swift Philippi land appeal

ACTIVISTS fighting for the conservation of the Philippi Horticultural Area have questioned a seven-day notice to present to the City against a 30 000-house Oaklands City development rezone approval, saying they were forced to condense an eight-year battle into a 10-minute appeal.

The area is 3 000 hectare of farmland on the Cape Flats, and opponents of the development said it would threaten the livelihoods of emerging farmers and their workers as well as food security, and jeopardise a 630km² aquifer in the region.

The Western Cape province has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment for the planned-472.36ha development despite widespread opposition.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning approved the site because the land does not form part of the proposed Philippi area, as it is on the urban edge of the city. The City of Cape Town redrew its plans in 2013. The campaign’s Nazeer Sonday said yesterday that in Febru- ary, Heritage Western Cape found that the Cape Flats aquifer and its relationship with the land, the city and climate change were of critical importance.

A letter from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in July 2009 denied the City a right to sub-divide agricultural land in the Philippi area.

Dirk Smit, general planning appeals committee chairperson, said the Oaklands City developers and objectors had appealed the decision by the City’s interim planning committee in terms of the land-use planning ordinance.

The activists appealed the approval of the entire application, while Oaklands City appealed one of the conditions imposed by the committee when they approved it, Smit said. Both parties, should they feel the need to do so, have a right to have the decision reviewed by the Western Cape High Court, he added.

Smit said the seven-day notice, as well as the 10-minute presentation time, is standard procedure used by all committees.

Oakland City project manager George Viljoen would not comment.

DEAR Rezone Appeal Committee, mayor Patricia de Lille, Premier Helen Zille, MECs Anton Bredell and Alan Winde.

On a group visit to the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) Food and Farming Campaign Centre last Saturday, we were extremely disturbed to learn that the PHA campaigners were given seven days’ notice and a mere 10 minutes* to present their appeal to the city’s appeal authority against the 30 000-house Oaklands City development rezone approval in the PHA.

This is one of three developments proposed that will delete a third of the highly productive 130-year-old farmlands. As you know, 10 minutes is a short time. We wonder how an eightyear campaign to protect the farmlands of the PHA could possibly put its case in that time. This is our attempt as citizens of Cape Town:

1. What is the biggest challenge facing the City of Cape Town and its 4.4 million inhabitants right now? We would assert water shortage.

2. What is the biggest challenge facing planet earth and its 7.5 billion inhabitants right now? We would assert emissions of greenhouse gases.

3. What is the biggest challenge facing South Africa and its 55.5 million inhabitants right now? We would assert equitable land use.

4. Are there alternative options for housing developments in and around Cape Town, beyond the PHA? We would assert yes, and plentiful.

5. Are you on this committee – office bearers, city fathers and mothers, and ultimately, Cape Town citizens – inspired to leave a legacy for the next 500 years and more?

We would assert yes. We owe it to ourselves and future generations.

PHA is able to inspire this legacy by contributing to improving the challenges of Cape Town’s water shortage, emissions of greenhouse gases and equitable land use.

1. PHA is situated on one of Cape Town’s aquifers. It is estimated to have the capacity to provide, if managed and artificially recharged, up to 30% of Cape Town’s fresh water. Time constraints do not allow us to reference the material displayed in front of us, but suffice it to say that the city’s own studies have come to this conclusion. PHA’s 3 000 hectares, retaining its agricultural land use, is a prime site to contribute recycled water systems to alleviate the water shortage experienced by 4.4 million Capetonians.

2. PHA supplies up to 80% of Cape Town’s fresh vegetable produce. It can supply the majority of the citizens within a 15km radius. The carbon fixing from these 3 000 hectares of land, if agro-ecologically farmed as on Vegkop Farm, equates to approximately 20% of Cape Town’s greenhouse gas emissions a year.

An additional positive contributing factor is that the “food to fork” route is limited to a 15km trip, thus having a negligible impact in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions versus food being transported into the city from many hundreds of kilometres away. Time constraints do not allow us to reference in detail the empirical basis for our argument, but suffice it to say, many studies, including from the WHO, have come to this conclusion.

PHA’s 3 000 hectares, retaining its agricultural land use, is a contributor to reducing the levels of greenhouse gases, impacting 7.5 billion people, globally.

3. The PHA campaign presents a “trailblazer” land usage project. Careful thought on how to give significant numbers of “small farmers” access to the use of agricultural land will contribute to reducing the income inequality of the region and the country, bearing in mind that 70% of the world is fed by small-scale farmers. Governments the world over are coming to realise the important role that small farmers can play in modern economies and food security. The UN, through the Food and Agricultural Organisation, has invited governments around the world to elevate the role of smallholder farmers as stewards who manage and protect natural resources and drive sustainable development.

The 1 300 hectares in the PHA earmarked for development, if farmed agro-ecologically, could contribute at least 24 000 more jobs in addition to the 6 000 that would be displaced by housing and improve income equality via equitable land use, acting as a trailblazer model impacting on every one of South Africa’s 15.6 million households.

4. The 3 000 hectares of PHA land is the last remaining agricultural land of an area that was three times larger. Studies on Cape Town’s land availability for development projects have been undertaken on numerous occasions, ahead of the Olympic bid, the soccer World Cup and the latest project related to solving the inner city’s traffic congestion, to name but a few.

The City of Cape Town and the developers have many options, such as (but not limited to) the Wingfield military area and Air Force Base Ysterplaat, which could both be relocated if needed, negotiations to which the national minister of housing was invited. Possibly each would have their own challenges and impacts on the environment, but hardly any, or no other piece of land, with so many solutions to solving current real challenges as the PHA, which is irreplaceable, unique, agricultural land.

The PHA is a sustainable design dream (remember “World Design City”?), addressing all or part of the challenges of Cape Town’s water shortages, emissions of greenhouse gases, equitable land use, economic opportunity, employment, food price stability and security, and nurturing healthy citizens with less chronic illness. Developers continue to have a range of available options elsewhere for ongoing city development: all that is required is the political will to steer this.

5. Are you on this committee and the city fathers and mothers, voted into your fiduciary roles by the Cape Town citizens, inspired to leaving a legacy for the next 500 years and more?

We would assert yes. We owe it to ourselves and future generations.

We believe that if the City of Cape Town comes to a decision to retain the agricultural rights of the PHA’s 3 000 hectares, that in our lifetime and in hundreds of years to come, Cape Town will be acknowledged as the city with foresight, having built a sustainable future and giving people hope. This engagement and the subsequent decision, to retain the agricultural rights of PHA, will be a living and real example of democracy.

We therefore submit to you that taking a decision to retain the agricultural rights of PHA, working with the developers on the alternative development options already identified, that Philippi Horticultural Area is central to building Cape Town as one of the most exemplary and sustainable cities to live in. Our allocated time of 10 minutes has run out. However, our resolve to retain the agricultural rights of PHA has not.

We sincerely urge you to consider our points mindfully. Section 34 of the Constitution of South Africa states: “Everyone has the right to have any dispute… decided in a fair public hearing”.

The Western Cape Policy on Public Participation 2010 states that the “process of public participation must be engaging and meaningful”. Siegi and Irene Juhnke Philippi Horticultural Area

PHA is on an aquifer. Estimated to provide up to 30% of Cape Town’s water