Cape fire warnings ignored by rich owner
A “rogue” Irishman with his own mountain and a Scottish lord with a love of pine trees are in the firing line as authorities crack down on overgrown properties in parched Cape Town.
Officials this week shared a hit list of properties overrun with alien vegetation that posed a fire hazard ahead of an expected busy fire season due to the drought.
Top of the list is Irish businessman Martin Kelly, who has refused to clear a forest of alien vegetation on his hilltop property — dubbed Matchbox Mountain.
Also on the list is a wealthy Scottish lord, Irvine Laidlaw, who owns a Noordhoek estate adjoining Table Mountain National Park. Unlike Kelly, however, Laidlaw has spent a small fortune eradicating invasive pines to prevent a repeat of a 2015 inferno.
By contrast, Kelly has largely ignored his 78ha Erf 1, which towers above Glencairn and where alien vegetation stands over 3m high in places. The conditions mean the hill is considered an “inferno in waiting”.
Erf 1 narrowly escaped a series of fires in recent years, including a fire earlier last month that cut a swathe through an adjoining valley above Simon’s Town.
The Department of Environmental Affairs said this week the stand-off with Kelly was a worry.
“We’ve already had very unseasonal fires, and fire season really starts in December,” said Guy Preston, deputy director-general for environmental programmes.
“We had to bring down our helicopters early after the unseasonal fire that started at Oudekraal [between Bakoven and Llandudno on the Cape Peninsula].
“We could easily have had a really bad fire around Erf 1. The City of Cape Town widened the fire break between Erf 1 and Glencairn, and spent over R300 000 in the previous fiscal year which was not recovered from Mr Kelly.
“It is important to understand that although the fire break was widened, it may not stop a fire . . . under gale-force conditions — and the risk is greatly exacerbated by the current levels of dense alien vegetation.
“If a fire goes through your property and you haven’t taken the steps to prevent its spread, and it then burns down neighbouring structures, you are likely to be found liable for a portion of the damage.”
A government source said Preston’s department asked Interpol to help find Kelly after he ignored warnings about the state of his land. The department’s investigations team, the Green Scorpions, were also called in.
Cape Peninsula Fire Protection Association chairman Pierre Gallagher confirmed that the authorities had pursued Kelly. “The concern mainly stems from landowners who live adjacent to it [Erf 1],” he said.
“Various [legislative] acts demand that he clears it. He has done nothing about it. That property definitely needs to be targeted.”
Alien plants — especially pines in the mountains and wattles along rivers — are the biggest long-term threats to the supply of water, the greatest threat to the rich biodiversity of the Western Cape, and the main cause of devastation through fires.
“Seed banks” embedded in areas of alien vegetation can persist for decades, necessitating arduous follow-up clearing.
Other properties whose owners have received legal warnings to clear alien vegetation include a large property outside Kommetjie owned by a Johannesburg businesswoman and an Oudekraal estate.
“Cape Town experienced massive fires in January 2000, when 80 structures were burnt — every one of them surrounded by invasive plants,” Preston said.
Rogue landowners can be liable for hefty fines and even jail time in terms of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act.
Kelly could not be reached for comment.