The owner of a house in Langebaan in the Western Cape has been forced to demolish the home because it was built within a hundred metres of the high-water mark on the Olifants River.
The house contravened the National Environmental Management Act, which prohibits any building within 100 metres of the high-water mark. Property owner Chris Koch was issued with a directive by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning to rehabilitate the land to its original state once the house was demolished.
According to Suzanne du Plessis, who is chairwoman of a Western Cape conservation organisation known as Friends of the Swart Tobie, the current legislation is very clear: no house or building may be erected in the mouth of an estuary or within 100 m of the coastal water mark.
She says that Koch’s house was “not even 25 metres” from the water’s edge. She says she spotted the building activity while walking along the banks of the Olifant’s River and realised immediately that the home had been built in defiance of the regulations.
She reported it to the Matzikama municipality and lodged a complaint that it was not complying with the legislation. The municipality handed the matter over to their lawyers to deal with and, at the end of October last year, the provincial department went to inspect the property.
Du Plessis says that in November last year the department ordered that the house be demolished and the land rehabilitated. In terms of the environmental legislation, failure to comply with the demolition order could result in a fine of R5-million or a jail sentence of up to 10 years.
Koch, who started demolishing the house this week, has not commented on the matter.
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