Seeing red over green waste tip

IT was bound to raise a stink.

Now Western Cape premier Helen Zille has waded into a 13-year-old spat over compost at South Africa’s biggest organic waste dump.

On one side of the fence is “Compost King” Eddie Redelinghuys, owner of a 64ha organic compost facility that handles most of Cape Town’s green waste.

Next door on a 3ha smallholding is disgruntled businessman Peter-Ben Pagel, who says his quiet country life has been shattered by trucks, dust and odours.

“When I first came here I thought he [Redelinghuys] was a reasonable guy,” said Pagel, who inherited the stand-off when he bought the land in 2011. “I went to have a look at the site and everything looked hunkydory.”

However, the rapid expansion of Redelinghuys’s business, Reliance, led to increased activity next door, Pagel said, notably noisy composting activities in a MONEY FROM MUCK: Farmer and businessman Eddie Redelinghuys second site against their shared boundary fence. Pagel started lodging objections — and has continued ever since.

The barrage of complaints prompted an eight-page reply this week from Zille, who defended the province’s handling of the dispute. She denied Pagel’s claims that Redelinghuys had been allowed to operate illegally due to a shortage of landfills.

She also accused Pagel of a “derogatory demeanour” in his dealings with officials, and said it appeared his intention was to have the facility closed at all costs. She denied the matter was being ignored, pointing to a long list of interventions.

In a letter to Pagel’s attorney on Thursday, Zille said: “Whilst your clients may not be satisfied with the pace of these activities or the outcome, your clients seem to have a preconceived idea that the only satisfactory (lawful) outcome is the complete closure and shutdown of the Reliance operations. Given that the current operations are lawful, this is simply not realistic.”

She conceded that the City of Cape Town had issued a pre-compliance notice due to a noise “disturbance”. Reliance was being monitored to ensure noise was reduced, Zille said. The company had also paid an administrative fine relating to a land-use infraction.

Pagel dismissed Zille’s reply and said he had presented evidence of several transgressions. His grievances include truck “beeping” noises before dawn, dust clouds and fires from the compost dumps.

“They are violating my constitutional health rights,” said Pagel.

He lives on the property with his wife and children. A row of trees separates his outside pool area from mounds of waste.

Redelinghuys said Pagel only had himself to blame for his predicament. “He made the mistake of buying a 3ha vacant piece of land next to a compost facility on a dirt road. Now he is doing everything possible to make our lives a misery.

“In one week we had more than five people visit us from different departments,” said Redelinghuys, who had offered to buy Pagel’s land.

Reliance employed about 260 people and processed 50 000m³ of organic compost a month, Redelinghuys said.

Redelinghuys conceded that Pagel at least forced him to be vigilant: “He is our number one environmental officer,” he said.