Depressing scenes at Company’s Garden

THE Company’s Garden is dying – and not because of the drought. An irrigation system fed by one of Cape Town’s underground streams is simply not being used to optimal effect.

Some say it’s because the stream has been diverted to water lawns at the stadium. Others blame poor water pressure and the gardeners’ inflexible working hours. Whatever the case, poor management seems to be the nub of the problem.

The sub-contractor and his team are still there. So are the underground sprinklers.

But there are patches of bare soil, dead plants and weeds everywhere.

No attempt is being made to fence off the worn parts of struggling lawns, allowing them to recuperate.

And the aviary has been vacant for over a year, all its inhabitants having escaped during a storm that blew away a section of their cage. It’s depressing.

For reasons known only to city parks, the new incumbent needs more support than her predecessor.

So fortnightly meetings are to be arranged between the head of horticulture, recreation and parks and the sub-contractor – to make sure he does what he always did without them, until the change in management. That included watering by hand-held hose.

But there are also signs of administrative incompetence. In breach of the regulations, two early Sunday morning events with amplified sound have already been held in the Delville Wood monument area this year – by the same inter-faith anticoerced-conversion group, and once without a permit.

Lots of screamed instructions to a team of uniformed protesters practising synchronised movements with umbrellas, five bass drums… Imagine being woken by all that on your one day of rest. Something is very wrong.