While hunger striker Bronwen Lankers-Byrne was handcuffed to the cement foundations of a Chapman’s Peak construction site, she took a call from her brother to say he was in Cape Town and would she be free for supper. ‘I don’t think so,” she responded.
Life for this former Buddhist nun has not been quiet since she walked up ‘Chappies” to meditate and decided she would not allow the provincial government to erect a two-storey office block as part of the Hout Bay Toll Plaza on land that belongs to the Table Mountain National Park.
The hunger strike lasted 15 days. Since then Lankers-Byrne and her group of supporters have collected more than 7000 signatures opposing the construction of the building. Runners, walkers and cyclists pass by and wave to her at her campsite opposite the building site.
Two giant cement pillars have already been erected. On Thursday morning a handful of protesters threw themselves on the bonnet of a truck that had arrived at the building site to fell a line of imposing bluegum trees. One woman tried to put a rock under the wheel of the truck to stop it moving forward and got her fingers slightly injured.
‘We will try to stop them taking the trees down,” said Lankers-Byrne. ‘Everybody will gather up here on the mountain to prevent it happening.”
The building causing all the fuss is offices for Entilini Concession, the private company operating the toll road in partnership with the provincial government.
What is clear when standing on the mountain with Lankers-Byrne is that she is not going anywhere. Hers is a growing movement, with a mountain-top base, and its members are determined to stop the construction.
Down below in Imizamo Yethu, a bustling settlement in the Hout Bay valley, a handful of people questioned had not heard much about the uproar. Only Deborah Ndoni, a 35-year-old resident who was sitting outside her corrugated iron shack, seemed to know about the protests, but they were not her main concern.
‘All I am worried about is my sister’s job. She works for Entilini and helps me with money for my baby. We don’t want her to lose her job.”
Asked why her sister was concerned that she would lose her job, Ndoni said she was unsure but there was talk that ‘things might change”.
Across town, in his office in the city centre, Robin Carlisle, MEC for transport and public works, said he would be delighted if a solution was found, as long as it did not cost the province any more money.
Entilini was considering some options and might even decide to adopt another model to ‘move the money off the mountain” and erect an electronic tolling system, he said. ‘All we know is that this story will have an ending.”
Attempts to get comment from Entilini were unsuccessful.
Recognised as a hard-working MEC, Carlisle is also a passionate nature lover and Chapman’s Peak is one of his favourite spots. With his team of experts, he scoured the area for a suitable site for what he described as a ‘control centre” on the mountain.
If Entilini had built it on provincial land it would have destroyed fynbos, Carlisle said, and his department had been warned not to touch the sacred picnic sites. In the end an old disused quarry was found to be the least offensive site for a building.
Carlisle believes that only by building a control centre at the toll plaza will the road be properly managed. Although Chapman’s Peak is considered one of the best picnic sites in South Africa, it is also considered one of the most dangerous because of regular rockfalls. A 46-tonne rock fell on the road recently and Entilini has to clear the pass of rockfalls almost daily.
‘Part of having everything together in one place, like at this control centre, is that it affords the fastest safety reaction times, with senior managers there 24 hours a day,” Carlisle said. ‘In the event of something happening disaster management and emergency services will be called quickly.”
Carlisle said it was ‘inhumane” to make staff at Entilini sweat it out in shipping containers on the mountain and they needed a decent ‘control centre”. The recreational users also deserved security on the mountain, to be safe from muggers.
Although he is aware that his stance is making him unpopular with a certain sector of the Hout Bay community, Carlisle will not back down unless Premier Helen Zille tells him to do so, or another solution is found.
‘I do this job to do what’s right, not to be popular. To discard due process now because people are angry with me, well, I think that would be grounds for terminating my ministerial job straight away. If I was in charge, I would fire that person in turn. It would be irresponsibility in the face of public pressure.”
But Carlisle is concerned about the effect the negative press coverage is having on his family — and it has taken its toll, with people making snide comments. ‘Quite frankly, I’m hurt by it all. I tried to do right by renegotiating a great contract.”
Carlisle said the new contract had been brilliantly negotiated by his legal team. The controversial previous contract had been a fixed, valid document that had given the concessionaire the power not only to close the pass at will, but also to be paid liberally by the province while it was closed.
‘I am not saying people shouldn’t protest. But protest cannot be an instrument for changing due process. That would invite anarchy. I thought Chappies was important enough to make it the first order of business. I am proud of what has been achieved with this contract. We can’t make it perfect.
‘I have climbed Chapman’s Peak many times. It is one of my main haunts as a walker and scrambler. I wonder why those people are screaming at me when they do. It is very hurtful. As I said, no good turn goes unpunished.”
Carlisle said he had many tasks in his portfolio to consider, including the state of other roads.
A lot of what has been written in the press is untrue, he said. It had even been reported that the free one-day pass would be removed, which was totally untrue.
‘A lot of the behaviour up there has been unlawful. It doesn’t help in a country like ours, which is plagued by unlawful behaviour. I salute their passion, their obsession. I salute their determination. There are alternatives being considered but it must not cost [the] province money, that’s all. I would be delighted if they found some solution. I didn’t become a minister to put control buildings on the mountain.”