Court orders T’kei lodge torn down
Environmental rules flouted over years
APOPULAR Eastern Cape holiday resort on the Wild Coast will be demolished after a Butterworth Magistrate’s Court ruling found the place was built illegally.
The owner of Dwesa River Lodge, Nompucuko Maqubela, was found guilty of 15 charges, including building in the coastal conservation area without authorisation from the Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Dedeat).
Maqubela was last week sentenced by magistrate Doreen de Waal to two years imprisonment or ordered to pay a fine of R2 500 wholly suspended for five years on condition she is not convicted of a similar charge during the suspension period.
The date to demolish Maqubela’s property has not yet been set.
Director of compliance at Dedeat Div de Villiers said Maqubela began building her 9 000m² lodge in 2003 and continued to complete the structure despite being warned against doing so on numerous occasions.
“She just carried on building. We first warned her in December 2003 and gave her several warnings and explained the legal steps to develop. There were numerous delays with court proceedings hence the length of time to finalise the case,” said De Villiers.
“The correct process to develop along the Wild Coast is to firstly determine where the designated development nodes are, obtain traditional authority approval and apply to Dedeat for authorisation.”
The demolition of Maqubela’s property won’t be the first in the area as the department wants to remove all illegal structures built along the Wild Coast.
In 2015 five illegal cottages were destroyed at Lubanzi Village. “There are quite a lot of cottages and illegal buildings that people stay in. There have been a few backpackers’ that have been established on the Wild Coast. People think they can get away with doing things [that are illegal] along the Wild Coast. They take chances because the cases take too long to get finalised. It is a total disregard for the law,” De Villiers said.
He said unapproved buildings could have negative impacts on the environmentally sensitive areas.
“People who build holiday resorts without following proper procedures negatively affected tourism in the long run. We have been investigating this for a couple of years now. We are happy with the judgment and sentencing. This shows that the law must be upheld by everyone.”
The department has sent a stern warning to illegal developers in the area.
“We would like to see legal, organised, sustainable development along the Wild Coast in designated development nodes. The judgment shows that the legislation is valid and applies to everyone. We will continue to enforce the law and will ensure that unlawful developments in environmentally sensitive areas along our coast are demolished.
“People who develop on the Wild Coast have to go through the processes of getting authorisation set up for development and must not just build anywhere or they will end up losing their properties. Development is done in a proper manner with authorisation.”
Maqubela’s lawyer Nelson Nombambela of Nombambela Attorneys Inc said they would appeal the sentence. “Nothing is over yet, I have received instructions from my client to file for an appeal against the decision of the magistrate so there is no way I will comment until the case is over.”
This shows that the law must be upheld by everyone