Kicking up a stink about offal manure
Filling a bath is considered bad form in the drought-ravaged Western Cape. But damming an entire valley on your property could land you in deep trouble with your neighbour.
That’s the situation in Nuy, near Robertson, where farmer Hennie de Bod is under investigation for an allegedly unauthorised dam across the width of Middelste Kloof, much to the dismay of Hanneré Jooste, who runs an adjacent nature reserve.
It’s the latest chapter in a standoff that started last year when De Bod began dumping tons of blood and guts — waste from his feedlot and abattoir business — on his property without municipal permission. The waste is mixed with wood chips and turned into compost that is not buried.
He has now applied for permission to significantly expand his operation beyond the current legal limit of 10 tons of waste on site, to the alarm of Jooste and other neighbours involved in the hospitality sector.
While De Bod insists he just wants to make an honest living and build his business, Jooste says he is bending the rules and making the valley stink.
“You can’t have an offal dump right next to a nature reserve,” said Jooste, who claims the waste attracts swarms of flies. Animals such as leopard and bush pigs would also be attracted to the waste dump and to De Bod’s proposed adjoining feedlot for up to 6 000 lambs, she said.
The enlarged dam was merely one of numerous questionable developments on De Bod’s farm. “According to him, the waste does not smell and does not attract flies, so why doesn’t he put it next to his house near Robertson?” she said.
A formal investigation into De Bod’s dam was confirmed by the Western Cape environment department. “The dam is an existing dam based on Google Earth imagery, however [it] was expanded considerably,” confirmed Shereen Pearson, of the strategic and operational support directorate.
An official of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the matter was being investigated.
Jooste said aerial photographs showed the enlarged dam was previously two much smaller dams.
De Bod denies any wrongdoing and insists he is being unfairly targeted by a neighbour trying to block his successful business. “A lot of this is personal,” he told the Sunday Times this week.
David Houghton, chief operating officer of feedlot company South African Farm Assured Meat, said Jooste’s complaint was untrue and vexatious. He said his company had done no more than repair an existing dam wall and had not increased overall capacity.
“For whatever reason, [Jooste] has an axe to grind. The dam has always been on the site — all we have done is repair it.” He denied there were ever two separate dams.
“We needed to ensure that we are keeping the water we are allowed to keep,” Houghton said, insisting that the repaired wall was not depriving water users downstream. Most of the year the river was dry, he said.
“It is not like we’re blocking off the Berg River. [Jooste] doesn’t want us to do anything. She lives up in her kloof and doesn’t want to be disturbed. She is over 2km away. Other people much closer have no issues . . . most want to use our compost.”
Documents seen by the Sunday Times reveal numerous complainants against De Bod’s proposed expanded dump, which would see waste — most of it blood — trucked in from Robertson.
The plan has drawn criticism from the World Wide Fund for Nature and CapeNature. “The potential for increased humanwildlife conflict is a concern,” said CapeNature scientific services manager Philippa Huntly in a written submission to De Bod’s environmental consultant.
A visit revealed mixed feelings about De Bod. One resident praised the “high-quality” compost operation, but conceded that De Bod may have overstepped the mark with his dam. Others sided with Jooste, saying she was leading the charge on behalf of disaffected locals.