A PR councillor has accused the Stellenbosch Municipality of breaking a 2019 promise that it would not develop Jamestown’s farmland, thereby putting the area’s farm water at risk of pollution.
Jamestown’s irrigation system, the leivoor, has irrigated small-scale families for generations. Now with the Blaauwbosch Estate application pending, GOOD Stellenbosch has released a statement about the broken promise of not developing on that land. VIDEO: Hae-Won Boesack
In a statement released on 12 August, Robin Hendrikse, a Stellenbosch Municipality proportional representative councillor and GOOD public relations manager, raised concerns about the developmental pressure Jamestown is facing from the Stellenbosch Municipality and developers.
The concern centres around the Tuinerwe, the historic agricultural smallholdings between Webersvallei Road and the Blaauwklippen River.
In 2019, the Municipal Spatial Development Framework (MSDF brought the Tuinerwe inside Stellenbosch’s “urban edge”, this marked the land as open to development, said Hendrikse. Residents objected at the time but the municipality assured them “the Tuinerwe is not intended for development”, said Hendrikse.
The water from Blaauwklippen River is transported through an open irrigation furrow called the “leivoor”, which 40 small-scale farms rely on, according to Dale Simons, representative of the Jamestown Trust.
Hendrikse said this water supply is now at risk from the proposed Blaauwbosch Estate.
The proposed Blaauwbosch Estate would not be part of the historic agricultural holdings, said Stuart Grobbelaar, the Stellenbosch Municipality communications manager.
However, he said, “The historic water furrow”, which leads water from the Blaauwklippen river to the smallholdings, will cross the property.
The road leading toward Aan de Weber Estate, adjacent to where the proposed Blaauwbosch Estate would be built. PHOTO: Hae-Won Boesack
Dr Katelyn Johnson, a senior civil engineering lecturer at Stellenbosch University (SU) with a focus in hydrology, said “changes in runoff, flooding or erosion, as well as sediment and pollutants entering the water” could affect the quantity and quality of water available to the farmers.
“The livelihoods of existing residents cannot simply become collateral damage in the process of development,” said ACDP councillor and 39-year-old Jamestown resident Otniel Jooste.
“The concerns around the irrigation furrow are particularly serious.”
Jooste added that farmers depending on the water system needed absolute certainty that their access would be protected if there were to be a development.
Farmland bordering the proposed Blaauwbosch Estate site, part of Jamestown’s historic agricultural landscape. PHOTO: Hae-Won Boesack
Bentigraph (Pty) Ltd is the proposed developer, and First Plan Town and Regional Planners submitted the application on their behalf, said Gideon Roos, a partner from First Plan Town and Regional Planners. He said the leivoor and water supply “will be properly protected by ways of a registered servitude” as indicated on the plans, and that no development will be permitted to close it.
The trust’s concern is not development but whether it aligns with existing planning and heritage frameworks, said Simons.
With regard to the current application for Blaauwbosch Estate, the Trust has followed the public participation process and submitted formal comment, and believes that decisions on Jamestown’s future should not be “approached as isolated or ad hoc decisions”.