A contractor employed by the South African National Roads Agency has been accused of destroying hectares of the highly endangered Pondoland Pincushion, among other Red List plants, while working on the N2 Wild Coast project, sparking protests from the local Amadiba community. Last week, local tourist guide and award-winning environmentalist in the Amadiba area along the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, Sinegugu Zukulu, discovered that the contractor hired to cut down alien plants in the Amadiba area had destroyed a colony ofPondoland Pincushions, a highly endangered plant. The work was part of the R4-billion Mtentu Bridge N2 Sanral project to build one of Africa’s highest and longest cantilever bridges over the Mtentu River.
The plan is to reduce travel time on the N2 between Durban and East London and boost the Eastern Cape economy. However, there has been an ongoing dispute with the Amadiba community, who are fighting the decision to have the road run through their pristine coastal area. The Amadiba Crisis Committee has been fighting for the planned N2 Coastal Route to be moved from the environmentally sensitive coastline since 2010, when its former, late chairperson, Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Radebe, first raised the issue.
The Amadiba objection has now reached Parliament in the form of a petition that also proposes an alternative route and a midterm review of the project. Besides the Pondoland Pincushion, Zukulu pointed out, among the carnage he also found two otherRed Listspecies. The Spearleaf Conebush (Leucadendron spissifolium) is on the list due to continuing threats to its habitat but is not yet in danger of being extinct.
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The other plant, the Lance-leaved waxberry (Morella serrata), is on the red list but the full extent of the threats against it must still be assessed. “All three of these species are highly vulnerable and under threat to become extinct,” he said. Several of the same plants had been “mowed down” in the area six months ago by uninformed contractors.
Zukulu said the plants grow in the Pondoland Centre of Endemism. Among the Amadiba community’s arguments to have the proposed N2 highway moved inland is that it will save this area. “But I think firstly we need an acknowledgement that what happened here was very serious.
There is a need for an undertaking to do rehabilitation.” Zukulu said the workers also needed to be informed to understand why the plants were crucial to the area. He said that after the Amadiba Crisis Committee filed its complaints he heard that workers’ wages were not paid “as a punishment”.
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