Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Eleanor Quinta and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Ana Motaung. See attached pictures here, here, here and here.
The DA in Maluti-a-Phofung will once again escalate the recent intimidation threats against joggers in Platberg Nature Reserve to the MEC for Environmental Affairs and call for immediate security measures to protect visitors and restore law and order. The municipality and Municipal Manager have reportedly been promising to appoint security for two years.
Yet, illegal activities continue to escalate, putting visitors at risk and threatening the safety of the community.
It seems that, in typical municipal fashion, they will wait for a serious incident involving violence before taking action.
A series of illegal activities has started to spill over into serious intimidation tactics by illegal occupiers in the Platberg Nature Reserve. It is hard not to believe that the next step up would be violence. Throughout this, Maluti-a-Phofung management has remained completely silent.
Their silence is deafening to a community that has been pleading for assistance for years.
Maluti-a-Phofung has been confirmed to be the management authority appointed to manage the Platberg Nature Reserve. So why, to date, has no one taken back control?
Are they simply uninterested in their own amazing tourism greenbelt, or are they completely out of touch with the reality that they are responsible for safeguarding their communities?
We understand that it is complicated because the illegal occupiers, though declared illegal by the court, cannot be evicted because the civil case is still before the court.
We are asking for immediate security to be appointed to prevent criminal activities, logging, hunting, burning charcoal, intimidation, threats and attacks on visitors.
A security company could help restore law and order and, together with SAPS, bring criminal activity under control while we wait for the eviction order.