17 NATURE | 15
26 February 2020
Buying into Hope for the future Writer & Photographer Elaine Davie
and, of course the Rooisand horses.
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In order not to frighten any of them away or destroy their habitat, the clearing will, of course, need to be carried out with great care and circumspection.
he farm called De Draay was one of the properties owned by the pioneering Delport family of Ysterklip (The Village NEWS 15 January 2020). When Jack Delport sold the home farm, together with De Draay, about a decade ago, a portion was bought by the developers of Arabella Estate and a portion by the Cape Townbased New Property Ventures. Sadly, the intervening years have not been kind to De Draay. Once a flourishing stock farm abutting the beautiful Bot River Estuary and well-watered by streams from the mountains, it has literally gone to seed. Over-run and throttled by a wilderness of water-guzzling alien vegetation, mainly Australian myrtle, port Jackson and pine, there is little or no evidence that it was ever a prosperous farm with rich grazing lands, interspersed with fynbos, dams and wetlands inhabited by several species of indigenous wildlife. The good news is that the property, consisting of 78 ha above the R44 and 280 ha below the road has just changed hands once again and is now owned by a company called Ithemba Property and Agriculture (Pty) Ltd. Ithemba is also the new name of the farm. It means Hope. Managing Director, Gareth Lawrence of Sandbaai, is very clear that hope is what the enterprise is all about – hope for the environment, hope for local employment and economic development and hope for the two tenants who have operated from the property for several years without security of tenure – the Overstrand Equestrian Centre and a small non-governmental orphanage which cares for newborn babies. In past years, the farm was forced to endure the abuse of sand mining, both for building purposes and the production of glass. In these sections of the property the natural seed beds were completely destroyed and when the excavations were abandoned, the aliens took over on a massive
“Although we plan to carry a variety of livestock on the farm, starting with goats, which can help with the hacking programme, we also want to add more indigenous buck species to those already there. With a property as beautiful as this between mountain and estuary, we want to share it with both the local and tourist community as well. Using wood from the property, we’d like to put up a couple of bird hides, for example, and we’ll certainly maintain the existing cycling and horse trails.”
Gareth Lawrence in one of the few portions of the farm, Ithemba which is not overgrown by aliens.
scale. The Rooisand Road divides this property from that of Craig Saunders’ Wildlife Sanctuary and the difference in appearance between the cleared and the overgrown terrain is startling, to say the least. In the estimation of conservationist, Gareth, the daunting task of clearing the property and re-establishing it as a working farm will take around five to eight years of hard labour and a minimum or R2 million to get rid of the aliens alone. “The only way to do it is to divide the farm into separate blocks and deal with them one by one,” he says. “In some cases, after removal of the aliens, it will mean reseeding it with cover crops and indigenous trees and shrubs to avoid wind erosion, and re-establishing the natural balance of the soil. “We will also need to restore the dams, natural
streams and wetlands which have been clogged and sucked dry by the aliens. Real elbow grease is what it’s going to take; luckily I enjoy working hard in the outdoors. Actually, I feel as if everything I have done in my life has prepared me for this task.” However, given the cost of this exercise, he emphasises that the farm will have to start generating an income within the next 18 months. Gareth has a woodcutting and bulk supply business, so where practical he will harvest some of the pines for this purpose. Also on the plus side, having been left largely undisturbed for so many years, it is a bird lovers’ paradise (which includes a nesting pair of fish eagles), and a haven for a number of small antelope species, like duiker, ribbok and grysbok, not to mention a wealth of reptiles, like snakes and tortoises, as well as rare frogs species, a couple of rooikatte (caracal)
There is a particularly beautiful section of the property close to the water’s edge and shaded by old trees, where they would like to put up a few rustic, off-the-grid holiday cottages and perhaps even a small caravan park. They have not forgotten the orphanage and equestrian centre either and not only do they want to offer them greater security of tenure, but they would like to share their resources in helping them upgrade their infrastructure and extend their fundraising options. “The thing is, we’d like as many people as possible to benefit from this development,” stresses Gareth. “We have a completely open door policy and are actively engaging with all our neighbours, including CapeNature, as well as all the relevant departments of the Overstrand Municipality.” An environmental assessment will shortly be undertaken and public participation meetings are planned for the near future. As this will be a hugely expensive, yet at the same time inspirational enterprise, Gareth would like to invite anybody interested in becoming an equity partner to join them in this pilgrimage of Hope. Email Gareth on: gareth@woodcutters.co.za
