Cape Town - The Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) is considering erecting lookout towers in Lower Tokai Forest in an effort to improve safety in the area.
Security in Tokai Forest came under the spotlight in March when 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger was murdered and raped while jogging there. Her body was found in the tall, dense fynbos.
A week later, a Muizenberg woman, Cyndie Dennis, found a man waiting for her on the back seat of her car when returning from a walk in the forest, but her dog scared him away.
In a statement SANParks said it was investigating all viable means to improve safety in Tokai and in other areas of the Park.
“Lookout towers are being considered and more signage will be rolled out in the area,” it said.
Daily patrols by TMNP Rangers and Visitor Safety Officers would continue, while the park would also work closely with the police, neighbourhood watches and other safety forums.
Nicky Schmidt, who heads Parkscape, an association of nearly 2 000 residents concerned about safety, said they understood the tower would be on a mound at the middle section of the river adjacent to the plantation.
She said although it wouldn’t give a visual of the area where Franziska was murdered, or where they had seen signs of tik and other illicit activity, it would give a view over the fynbos to the north of the existing plantation.
Schmidt said the association was also concerned about the imminent felling of the pine plantations of Lower Tokai by forestry company Mountains to Oceans (MTO). Parkscape is concerned that with the trees gone and the fynbos allowed to regenerate, it would increase the risk of crime and fire right to the urban edge.
Schmidt said the Tokai Cecilia Management Framework, which was drafted with the support of and input from the city in 2007, had agreed the plantations of Tokai would remain until 2024 and be gradually felled as the pines matured.
She said the framework made provision for “transitional areas” of shaded recreation in Tokai and Cecilia.
In a letter to mayor Patricia de Lille, delivered on Friday, Schmidt said with no transitional planting of shade trees having begun and with conservationists and biodiversity specialists calling for the costly regeneration of sandplain fynbos, it was impossible to see how the Management Framework would be adhered to.
She said the principle of public engagement and people’s needs were being studiously ignored and over-ridden, despite only about 1 percent of the population supporting the felling of the pines.
Schmidt has requested De Lille to urgently intervene and, if necessary, issue an urgent interdict to prevent the felling, to provide time for proper and transparent public engagement with all concerned parties. But De Lille has declined to get involved, responding via her spokeswoman Zara Nicholson, saying this was a matter between Table Mountain National Parks and MTO.
Penny East, councillor for the area, was also asked to intervene, but responded via Facebook to Parkscape: “I am following this issue closely. Right now I wish to remain impartial in order to be able to engage with all stakeholders.”
SANParks, in a statement issued by spokeswoman Tarcia Hendricks, said the large mountain fire last March had brought into focus the serious fire threat of alien vegetation and exotic trees on the urban edge and the threat these posed to adjacent residential areas.
“A fynbos fire can be managed and is generally not a threat to fire-proof buildings on the urban edge as it does not burn as intensely as pine and gums trees do. The idea to actively plant pine trees on the urban edge needs to be revised.”
Hendricks added it could not be assumed the majority of the public objected to the removal of plantations. “Many members of the public and key stakeholders support fynbos conservation and have been volunteering for many years to assist in fynbos restoration.”
She pointed out when the plantations at Silvermine were exited in the 1990s, there was also “a public outcry” relating to the loss of the pine trees.
“Today, however, Silvermine is more popular than ever, with the fynbos restored and new picnic areas created.”
The statement said appeals to plant trees (or retain the pines) for security purposes could be accommodated within the city’s extensive green belt system, unused public land and recreational open spaces near and adjacent to the Park.
“These accessible parcels of land have lower conservation significance, high recreational value and can contribute significantly to any envisaged parkscape.”
Cape Argus