A high court judge has ordered an end to a 15-year feud involving bulldozers, beetles and a cellphone tower at the summit of one of SA’s highest mountains.
Two farming families near Ceres have been locked in an ownership dispute over a sliver of land touching the summit of the Matroosberg. Whoever owns it controls road access to the peak for thousands of visitors who flock to the mountain in winter to enjoy its snowfalls.
The mountain is also home to the Ski Club of SA, which has a hut near the summit, as well as several critically endangered beetle species found only in the summit area.
In papers before the high court in Cape Town, Basie Geldenhuys and his son, Gielie, insisted the sliver is theirs in terms of a 2005 agreement between themselves and their neighbours, Andre Smith and his family, who own Matroosberg Private Nature Reserve.
The farmers initially owned summit land together, but opted to take separate shares. However, it appears the Smiths never signed the subdivision papers and have been using the Geldenhuys portion, profiting from a 4x4 trail which starts on the Smiths’ land and traverses the Geldenhuys sliver on its way to the summit.
It was unclear if they had traversing rights and unsuccessful attempts to resolve the matter resulted in the court action.
In a judgment two weeks ago, acting judge Mohamed Salie ordered the Smiths to sign their documents and submit a subdivision application to agriculture minister Thoko Didiza. Should they fail to do so, the sheriff or deputy sheriff of the Ceres district would be entitled to do so on their behalf, said Salie.
The Smiths’ lawyers sought an out-of-court settlement in light of the family having used the disputed sliver for many years. But the Geldenhuys family wanted finality from a judge.
Salie agreed a judgment was required “to prevent possible future disputes/or defences being proffered”.
The tiff is complicated by an illegal cellphone base station that was built on the summit, straddling portions of the Geldenhuys sliver and public works department land.
The government has ordered that the structure be removed and that parts of the site damaged by a bulldozer be rehabilitated. To date, the Smiths have neither confirmed nor denied they built or authorised the structure, and the government has declined to identify who was responsible.
Basie Geldenhuys welcomed the judgment this week and said he hoped it meant the end of a frustrating standoff. He said the Smiths had offered him a land swap, then a cash settlement, both of which he turned down. He now wanted to put the matter behind him.
Didi de Kock, co-owner of the Matroosberg Nature Reserve and daughter of Andre Smith, said the reserve’s 4x4 trail would remain open all the way to the summit, despite the court ruling. She declined to comment further.
Hannes du Bois, the Geldenhuys’s lawyer, said the Smiths would be in contempt of court should they continue to traverse his clients’ land.
In addition to being popular with hikers and skiers, the Matroosberg summit is of particular interest to scientists, who study its insects and fynbos. The area is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom World Heritage Site.
Images earlier this year of a large 4x4 parking area, which had been cleared of snow using a bulldozer, prompted outrage from a prominent scientist appointed by CapeNature to oversee rehabilitation of the damaged area.
