AfriForum calls on Municipality to rehabilitate Knysna garden refuse sites

Organisation’s rehabilitation plan on Municipality’s desk for months

AfriForum’s Knysna branch has called on the Knysna Local Municipality to implement the civil rights organisation’s practical rehabilitation and management plan, which would make the Old Place garden refuse site in Knysna accessible to the public again. This site, as well as the one in Sedgefield, is currently inaccessible due to the volume of unprocessed garden refuse and poor road infrastructure, to name a few. The air space – or the permitted volume of space – at both the Old Place garden refuse site in Knysna and the one in Sedgefield has reached capacity which means garden refuse is being illegally dumped elsewhere.

The current situation does not come as a shock to AfriForum. The civil rights organisation has been trying since 2024 to make the Old Place garden refuse site more accessible and has spent more than R110 000 to repair the access road to the site, remove large quantities of refuse and partially rehabilitate the site. At the time, this site complied with only 12% of the requirements for responsible refuse management in AfriForum’s national landfill site audit. In 2025, this figure dropped to 4%, and in 2026 to only 1%.

Over the years, AfriForum has addressed several letters to the Municipality, held numerous meetings and developed and submitted a complete rehabilitation and management plan to the Municipality for implementation. Yet the Municipality has failed to act. Residents and local businesses now have no legal terrain where they can dispose of garden refuse responsibly.

“When there is no legal site where residents can dispose of their garden refuse, it affects not only households, but also businesses that rely on these facilities on a daily basis. Garden services cannot do their work properly if they have nowhere to dispose of the refuse. This leads to financial losses and at the same time increases the risk of illegal dumping,” says Marthinus Erasmus, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Southern Cape.

In its latest letter to the Municipal Manager, AfriForum requested an urgent meeting so that its rehabilitation plan can be implemented by the Municipality as soon as possible. AfriForum wants to ensure that both garden refuse sites once again comply with the applicable legislation, rehabilitate the environment, combat illegal dumping and improve the safety of the sites.

“Our goal is simple: to implement a sustainable solution that benefits the community, the environment and local businesses. We believe the time has come to move from planning to implementation. These developments show that the current approach simply does not work. The time for delay is over. What is needed now is action and implementation,” says Erasmus.

AfriForum encourages residents to become part of the branch’s projects and to help build a culture of self-reliance, responsibility and community pride. Join the Knysna branch today. Send an email to marthinus.erasmus@afriforum.co.za or phone Erasmus on 081 216 9602 for more information.