Lawrence estimated that moving, rebuilding and demolishing would cost R400000, which would wipe out half their five-year investment.
Munrow did not appear at his cottage yesterday, but sent the Dispatch text messages in which he claimed his appeal to save his cottage was still before “the minister” based on the historic construction of the cottage in the 1950s by missionaries at Zithulele who ran a trading station which came with the right to build the Lubanzi cottage.
He said no cottages in the row were given PTOs because of the “laziness of the headman”.
He said he had proof of attempts made to try and get one.
He was shocked when the Green Scorpions called him yesterday and told him to come and get his belongings before the demolition.
But officials demolishing his house denied all knowledge of his appeal and said he had ignored the process.
Mzondeleli told the media and villagers that all legal steps in the law, among them notices and appeals, had been followed and that the owners had either failed to comply or had not responded.
But Ndawo said they were not happy with Mzondeleli’s address as all they had heard him saying was that this was a day for action, not talking.
The first structure to be bashed down contained a colourful painting by three artists.
One of them, Capetonian Danielle West, said one of the enormous portraits was spray-painted by underground artist Mookie in honour of his father, who was a senior Scorpion in the 1990s.
Yandisa Somgidi, a professional lifeguard in Lubanzi, said he had asked a Dedeat official last year if they could use one of the houses as a clubhouse, but was turned down.
Officials stressed they did not want any precedent set in which some structures were allowed to survive.
De Villiers also dismissed claims from villagers that they had not been sufficiently consulted, saying an exhaustive process had been followed with traditional leaders over years to get to the point of demolition.
Villager Noluntu Kayisa, who works at Wild Lubanzi, said her home fell inside the yellow line marking out the coastal conservation area.
She said: “I don’t like this. What will happen to my house?”
By mid-afternoon the neat row of ageing but charming cottages was reduced to a pile of smoking hulks.
Two cottages remained standing.
Their owners are apparently holding out for their appeals to succeed, but officials would not release their names.
Aidan Lawrence
August 26, 2015
This is how ‘Environmental Affairs’ practices enforcement. They torch building in front of school children, mothers and tourists with no safety barriers, no fire department and most of them heavily armed with police escort.
Do not get me wrong, I am for environmental management and the demolition of illegal structures but this needs to be done responsibly and with the communities knowledge.
This is my official response to them. My wife and the community members are still to release their statements later this week once the emergency meetings have been concluded. If anyone can offer the community legal help please contact us.
……………………
Dear Environmental Affairs,
What we witnessed today in Lubanzi was nothing short of criminal. You came into our village heavily armed with police and torched buildings, held the community hostage in terms of being armed and committed untold environmental infractions. This was done in full view of the community, women and children, adults, foreign and domestic tourists without warning to any of them. I sent you two emails advising you to consult the community first. You ignored these requests. There is an emergency meeting being held tonight to discuss how to deal with your department in the future. All I can say is that it is amazing that no one got hurt. You accomplished almost complete hostility to DEDEAT in one day from the community of Lubanzi. I personally have changed any perception I have of your department and consider you a hostile and unimaginative group of apartheid style bigots.
If you can answer, where in South Africa you can ignite a building in front of the public, shielded by heavily armed guards, in front of school children and mothers and call it justice I would love to know how.
If you think that torching houses will bring about cooperation and education on the Wild Coast you are very much mistaken.
I was lobbying heavily with the community to bring about an understanding of the policies and actions of your department – a thing which you completely failed to do. You claim you talked “extensively” to chiefs and local leaders, but the factual truth of the matter is this: the communities, the people who live here, remain largely uninformed. It is their living space – and ours – that you have violated today, without prior notifications nor warnings to the local inhabitants. What you left behind today was a plume of smoke and piles of rubble – how any of this is environmentally justifiable I don’t know either – and hatred and hostility in the community that we will not be able to turn into something positive anymore.
Regards,
Aidan Lawrence