Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The Gauteng Department of Housing is going ahead with a development project despite attempts by environmental groups to block the low-cost housing scheme on the grounds that it poses a threat to a rare butterfly species.
The Heidelberg Town Council’s low-cost housing project, which will house more than 14 000 people, has been on hold since 1999.
Environmental groups charged that the Heidelberg Copper butterfly, so named because of the golden metallic sheen of its wings and its discovery at Heidelberg in 1959, was so fragile that smoke from fires for cooking food would have a disastrous effect on its prospects for survival.
A number of environmental groups, including the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (Wessa), suggested that the Gauteng government relocate the proposed housing development. The government rejected this on the grounds that the proposed site was near necessary amenities.
Wessa said the relocation of the proposed project will be in the interest of preserving not only the Heidelberg Copper butterfly, but also other insects and at least 22 plant species listed in the Red Data Book as rare or endangered.
The environmental groups were hoping to use a 1997 precedent that was set when former minister of environmental affairs and tourism Pallo Jordan used Section 31A of the Environmental Conservation Act to halt a development project at Brenton-on-Sea near Knysna, a state reserve established to protect the Brenton Blue butterfly species.
Gauteng MEC for Housing Paul Mashatile said this week some Heidelberg residents did not want the project to go ahead and were using campaigns to save the butterflies as an “excuse”.
“We need to strike a balance between the needs of the people and the environment. Sometimes we have to consider the people before the environment or butterflies,” Mashatile said. “I don’t want to sound as if I have no regard for the environment. But there are thousands of people out there who do not have access to houses.”
Mashatile said his department would implement the housing project on the basis of the conditions underlined by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and the Environment. This includes the electrification of the houses. Initially, the Heidelberg Town Council did not allocate resources for the electricity and it remains unclear if funding is now available.
The site earmarked for the development falls between the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve and the Alice Glockner Reserve, run by the Gauteng Directorate of Nature Conservation.
The Alice Glockner Reserve was identified by two renowned scientists as one of the two sites in South Africa where the Heidelberg Copper butterfly has any hope of a future. The other site is a small private game ranch in Mpumalanga.
A study of the Heidelberg Copper by the scientists pointed out that the butterflies are particularly susceptible to air-borne pollutants and that an increase in smoke could have serious effects on the species.