Outrage over R575 permit fee to burn garden refuse

Nelson Mandela Bay residents will have to pay R575 for a permit every time they want to burn garden refuse – and the municipality is arming itself with a drone to catch those who try to do it on the sly.

Offenders face fines of up to R1,500.

Residents are being encouraged to recycle their garden refuse instead.

Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki confirmed that the cost of a permit for the burning of dry vegetation – which was issued free of charge previously – was now R575.

Fire department officials, who control the oversight of burn permits, confirmed in correspondence seen by The Herald that they were not aware of the introduction of the new permit.

Several residents organisations on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth were also in the dark about the charge.

Mniki said burning things added to pollution and required strict control, especially by the government.

“Climate change is a reality. It is caused by dumping pollutants into the atmosphere.

“To ensure sustainable development, citizens should consider other means of disposing of vegetation such as reducing, re-use and recycling.”

Mniki said burning should be a last resort.

“It is very difficult to control atmospheric pollution and its consequences are costly.”

He said the metro had called for public participation.

Those who burnt garden refuse without a permit would be fined R1,000 in terms of the bylaw and a further R500 for “carrying out open burning of material on land or premises without prior written authorisation from the municipality”.

“Environmental health practitioners and law-enforcement officers will be doing daily surveillance of the municipal jurisdiction,” Mniki warned.

Willie Bosch, the former chair of Farm Comm – a neighbourhood watch and volunteer fire services organisation for Greenbushes, Colleen Glen, Maitlands, Kragga Kamma and Seaview – said they were outraged by the move.

“I will go on record saying that if the municipality says there was public participation, it is a lie,” he said.

Bosch said that as a farmer in the Maitlands area himself, he and many others were in a difficult position.

“We have committed to the department of agriculture to get rid of the bluegum and Port Jackson trees on our properties,” he said.

“We are doing this as these trees use a lot of water and we

‘People will start burning without permits and there will be no control’ Willie Bosch

FORMER FARM COMM CHAIR

want to help conserve water.

“Now the municipality wants us to pay to burn them?

“There is no market for bluegum wood. People will still pay for pine but not for bluegum. Burning is the only way to get rid of it.

“I have 10 to 15 heaps of wood on my property that must be burnt. What are we going to do?

“We want to help save water and now we are forced to pay a ridiculous amount to burn.

“The introduction of this fee was never advertised. No public meeting was called.”

Bosch said the fee was being introduced almost a year after devastating fires in the area.

“We all learnt our lesson [then] – one of the reasons why that fire spread was because of dry vegetation that was left in heaps.

“The introduction of a fee to burn is not only totally unfair but the amount is totally way out as well.

“How did they arrive at

this? Let me warn the municipality right now, we are going to have a lot of fires here.

“People are going to start burning without permits and there will be no control.”

The Theescombe Residents’ Association was also not informed of the new permit cost.

Environmental activist Sue Hoffmann, who lives in Deer Park, said they had never been notified of the introduction of a fee for a burn permit.

“We have just started winning the fight in convincing people they should have a permit – but the permit was free previously. This is going to be very hard to swallow.”

Nicholas Scarr, of the Public Service Accountability Monitor, said he could only speculate about the reasons for introducing a cost for the permit.

“My sympathy, however, is limited,” he said.

“Burning has become an outdated way to deal with dead vegetation and trees.

“The extent of air-quality problems globally and in South Africa is such that we can no longer be complacent about it.

“Burning is inappropriate in all but the most exceptional cases. I support what the metro has done – this might make people think twice.”

However, he said, the law needed to be enforced.