‘Bush doctor’: Ronald Adams at his herbal medicine stall in Kleinvlei near Blackheath, Cape Town. He says the wild garlic he finds cannot be bought at a supermarket.
The nutrient-filled soils of the shale and granite Renosterveld ecosystems in the Western Cape produce major plant communities unique to the Cape floral kingdom. It is this exclusivity of the plants that provoke indigenous healers to enter conservation areas to harvest the plants they were taught will heal and treat the sick.
But one quest to harvest wild garlic on the hills of Cape Town’s Durbanville ended abruptly for a group of healers when they were arrested in August 2020 on charges of trespassing and being in possession of two bags of the plant without a permit.
Travelling all the way from the Northern Cape’s Bitterfontein, Garies, Springbok and Loeriesfontein the indigenous healers parked their single cab Ford Ranger on a private farm to reach the hills located on a CapeNature reserve, where they were hoping to find the plant.
The five men — Ashwin Fortuin, Aubrey Andrews, Edmund Cloete, Leroy Vosloo and Ronald Adams — were spotted by a farmer and were arrested when they returned to their vehicle. After spending four days in custody, the group of barefoot men, clothed in hessian designs, were granted bail in the Bellville regional court.
Since August, the court has postponed the matter three times. In the meantime, the group’s bakkie — which they are still paying off — remains impounded at the Bellville police station, while travel costs from the Northern Cape to Cape Town are mounting.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian, one of the accused, Ronald Adams, referred to his group as “bush doctors”. Adams said he studied herbs and plants for five years, learning their heritage and value from elders across the country.
“It is a profession that is entrusted [to] you, it is not a choice,” he said.
He told the M&G that the specific wild garlic the group had sought could not be purchased at supermarkets.
“The wild garlic is a natural antibiotic. You must go out to the mountain, and it must be wild. When you are sick and you eat only a piece of the garlic you will immediately feel you have taken antibiotics.”
A conservation officer at CapeNature, Leandi Wessels, who is familiar with the case, told the M&G that the garlic uprooted by the group belongs to the genus Tulbaghia, part of the Amaryllis family.
The wild garlic sought by the healers is Tulbaghia capensis, a distinct species from the Tulbaghia violacea wild garlic that is commonly on sale at nurseries.
“The entire [Amaryllis] family is listed under schedule 4 of the Nature Conservation Ordinance 19 of 1974 as protected flora,” Wessels said.
Photo by David Harrison
“Tulbaghia plants, especially in the area that these plants were found in Durbanville, form an important part of the critically endangered and nationally listed threatened lowland shale and granite Renosterveld ecosystems in the southwestern parts of the province.”
None of the five accused had a permit for harvesting plants at the time of their arrest; according to Adams, their permits expired years ago.
According to adjutant officer Harold Schroëder of the South African Police Service stock theft and endangered species unit, who is the investigating officer in the case, there is “no permit” that will allow the group to harvest “as they do”.
“They want to use it for the wrong reasons: that is the problem,” he said. “You cannot remove the plants from a nature reserve and sell [them] on the black market or the street to generate money.”
Schroëder said one wild garlic plant could be sold for up to R100, depending on how well it was advertised.
The Durbanville area and surrounds were a hotspot for commercial harvesting, he told the M&G, with “90% of our cases originating from Durbanville”.
Wessels said that, between 2017 and 2021, there had been at least seven active court cases in the Durbanville area, “where persons were found in possession of commercial quantities of protected flora without the required documentation prescribed by the legislation”.
The cases involve more than 7 000 of the protected Tulbaghia plants, with a commercial value exceeding R140 000, according to CapeNature.
“The unlawful harvesting and associated trade in wild animals and plants are depriving South Africa of its biodiversity, natural heritage and capital. This trade is enormous in volume and scope, absorbing a broad range of wild animals and species [of] their parts and derivatives,” Wessels said.
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She emphasised the importance of a sustainable future, while acknowledging that harvesting from the wild and the associated trade in plant species was an important livelihood across South Africa.
That is why “collaborative development of the provincial protocol for accessing nature reserves for consumptive and nonconsumptive activities and purposes” are invaluable, she said.
CapeNature had, since before 2010, “actively engaged with various natural resource user groups (such as indigenous healers) in the promotion and development of sustainable harvesting practices”.
Schroëder said that this year so far there had been no arrests linked to illegal harvesting in the Durbanville area.
Adams and his co-accused are set to appear in court again on 17 May for a pre-trial conference.
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