Philippi campaigners’ case based on myths – City

THE City has hit back at the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) campaigners, saying their court action was “founded on myths”.

The case between the PHA, the City and the provincial Department of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning was heard in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

The City poked holes in the PHA’s food and farming campaign around the approved developments in the area.

The City’s legal representative, Ron Paschke, said the case of the two applicants in the matter – the campaign and chairperson Nazeer Sonday – was based on “myths”.

“One of the myths is that development(s) will be allowed to endanger the aquifer; that’s not true. The aquifer will be protected through the application of the City’s stormwater management policy, adopted through international precedent that incorporates how urban developments should be managed and the sustainable urban drainage system,” he said.

Paschke also slammed the applicants’ claims that farming is beneficial for the aquifer. “In fact, farming is more likely to do harm than development. The farming practising survey shows that the soil in Philippi requires almost hydroponic cultivation.

“It requires massive amounts of fertilisation. Its sand doesn’t have the nutrients, and it needs massive fertilisation. Where does this fertilisation go? It goes into the groundwater and results in high pollution of the groundwater,” he said.

The campaign is arguing for the preservation of a key piece of agricultural land in the City’s jurisdiction that is under threat from proposed developments. The case challenges the administrative decisions made by Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell, his department and the City to rezone a part of the PHA for mixed-use development.

Sonday said: “I am angry because if I lose this case I lose everything I have worked very hard for, and it will be all over.”

James-Brent Styan, spokesperson for Bredell, said: “The province is in court defending the process whereby it made a decision relating to potential development only in a small section of the PHA. “This court process is not about the province wanting to develop and others trying to stop it. The province has never wanted to “pave over” the PHA at all.”