Cape Town - The Stellenbosch Municipality has lost its application for leave to appeal against a high court order mandating the municipality to grant unrestricted access to family members and caregivers of initiates at the municipal-owned Idas Valley Nature Reserve.
The original matter reached the courts in December last year after law enforcement officers denied access to Rashid Makhubela, a principal overseeing the Basotho-Mahlubi Metro NPO initiation school.
This despite Makhubela telling them he had received a report that one of the initiates was coughing blood and needed medical care.
The Stellenbosch Municipality had argued that the restriction of access was a step taken to mitigate the risk of veld fires on the property and that, as the owner of the property, it had a statutory obligation in terms of the Veld Fires Forest Act (VFFA).
Acting municipal manager Annelene de Beer, who was held responsible for barring access to the site, came in for criticism in Judge Daniel Thulare’s ruling in which she was said to have demonstrated a “refusal to understand African culture in general”.
Dismissing the application for leave to appeal, Judge Thulare said there was nothing in his analysis, including his views on De Beer’s conduct, which went beyond the facts as he understood them.
Thulare said: “It is simply dishonest for the Stellenbosch Municipality to claim to show Ubuntu in its papers, and for it to support De Beer to be a commanding official of armed forces that annihilate (people) from its jurisdiction.”
He accused the municipality of being on a “quest to obliterate the initiation of young African men” and said this amounted to a betrayal of dividends which black people thought a democratic and constitutional South Africa would bring about.
He said he was not of the opinion that the appeal would have reasonable prospects of success.
Approached for comment, municipality spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar said they were studying the decision and “taking it under advisement”.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za