ALBERTON – This article smacks of bigotry, hypocrisy and self-righteousness. By what means does the municipality grant itself the right to impose sanction on any plant growing on a pavement that was not planted or maintained by it? The trees on my pavement were planted by me and are maintained by me, where is the council involvement? This argument has been raised when alien invader plants like blue gum have been cut down in the past.
The photograph appended to the article shows a street stripped bare of all pavement trees and this property owner is now vilified? The remnants of the tree show a distinct lack of maintenance on the municipality’s part. I would be interested to know if Mr. Alberts has trees on his pavement and if not who cut them down.
The tree type was not named and the property owner was not asked or given the opportunity to state why the tree was cut down. The article continues with an unsubstantiated statement that “another healthy tree has been cut down by a resident, in contrast to their neighbours who have asked for trees to be planted on their sidewalk” The question is, what have these self-righteous neighbours done with the trees originally planted on their pavements?
Why are these self-righteous people saddened when a tree is cut down? Trees are cut down regularly in my neighbourhood and these acts are followed by a deadly hypocritical silence. So what if an Invader Plant is cut down?
The article continues “What frustrates me about this situation is that it is counterproductive. The council launched a campaign last year that aimed to plant 100 trees in every ward”. The author does not say if this was actually done or what species or where the trees were planted.
I take issue with the statement “our environment and taking care of it should fall on all residents, not just some (who are these good Samaritans?) and not only the higher authorities like the council.” The council has demonstrated it’s own inability to maintain anything. Consider sewage problems, water leaks, illegal dumping, potholes, road maintenance (a word not in the ANC vocabulary), plant growth in streets, signage, road markings, collection of money from the non-paying brigade: surely the council has better things to do than carry out an act of victimisation? The police must also have more serious matters to attend to.
The involvement of the Alberton Historic (sic) Society is also not understood. We are all aware of environmental degradation and its consequences. If trees on a sidewalk are a legacy then so be it. But let us consider the following:
The council itself is responsible for planting Declared Weeds and Invader plants. Alien palm trees have been planted in Swartkoppies Road. Hennie Alberts Street was planted with alien poplar trees as well as privet. Acacia melonoxylon trees were planted in Brackenhurst. A primary school is surrounded by privet. Many gardens contain sword fern and some nurseries even sell it with impunity from prosecution.
Privet, bug weed and a host of other declared alien weeds thrive in gardens. Residents cultivate opportunistically sprouted Syringa, Mulberry and Celtis sinensis trees (a tree that is causing harm to our indigenous Celitis trees), Canna is taking root in the veld. Suburban gardens are a litany of alien declared weed status plant material grown without the threat of prosecution.
The people involved with this criticism should find better things to do with their time.
RA Lautenbach
