They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
The Noordhoek Environmental Action Group (NEAG) may or may not have had the lyrics made famous by the pop group Counting Crows in mind when it tackled the owners of the Noordhoek Farm Village for turning a piece of carefully preserved public open space into a tarred parking area at the north west end of the village. The complaint nevertheless is that "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". A neat and well loved vegetable patch was sacrificed on the altar of "progress". The same lyrics reveal the motivation for taking on the case: "You don't know what you've got, till it's gone".It turns out that it was illegal to bulldoze the veggie patch. The case was heard in the High Court and Judge Dennis Davis issued an order on 19 February 2008 requiring the farm village to demolish and remove all permanent structures that it had put in place including all tar, asphalt surfacing, curbside construction and construction of the sign post in the corner.
The farm village, as it was entitled to do, asked for leave to appeal the demolition order. Judge Davis refused to give leave as he could see no prospect of another court coming to a different conclusion. A petition to the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal met the same fate as long ago as 7 July 2008 when it was dismissed. The order by Judge Davis stands, and as any visitor to the farm village can plainly see, it has not been complied with in any shape or form.
The excuse for this is that the order has become academic in that the Province has now approved the signage and the parking lot. However, a closer look at the correspondence upon which the farm village relies for this assertion reveals that far from approving its handiwork, the province simply recorded that it has no objection to the approval of the provision of parking bays. As acting judge Mantame, who heard the contempt of court application NEAG was eventually compelled to bring, noted: "That could not have been or was NOT an approval for the parking bays".
In the contempt case the court issued a declaratory order that no such consent by the Premier was given and that accordingly the farm village is in contempt of court. It has been ordered to give effect to the demolition order within 90 days of 13 December 2011 (when the order was granted) and a fine of R30000 has been imposed, wholly suspended on condition that the demolition is effected within the 90 days. Punitive costs were also awarded against the farm village.
Instead of firing up the bulldozers, the farm village has asked for leave to appeal the contempt order and has, somewhat spuriously, sought a correction of the order made.
The law is clear: "An order of a court of law stands until set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction. Until that is done the court order must be obeyed even if it may be wrong." These are the words of Justice Froneman, who now graces the Constitutional Court. Section 165(5) of the Constitution itself confirms the position: "An order or decision issued by a court binds all persons to whom and organs of state to which it applies."
The contempt order is in abeyance until the application for leave to appeal is determined. The sooner that determination occurs, the better: justice delayed is justice denied.
What then to do about the parking problems of the farm village? Perhaps serendipitously, or perhaps by design, the municipality has recently installed no fewer than five speed bumps in Village Lane, the short road that leads to the entrance of the farm village. This compares very favourably with the two and a half (one is just a slightly elevated pedestrian crossing) speed bumps in the whole of the not inconsiderable length of Beach Road - which is a bus route that leads to Monkey Valley, the Red Herring complex and of course the beach. One hump is beyond the commercial outlets and is thus only for slowing down beachgoers in a hurry.
The elegant and outsized speed bumps in Village Lane are a sight to behold. Neatly demarcated with strategically placed chevron boards cunningly located to stop the 4X4 brigade from driving around the bumps and painted to picture perfection, they have had the effect of rerouting all through traffic away from the lane and onto the main road. Naturally, they also effect a slowing down of the pace of traffic in the lane itself. The crumbling road surface and potholes also contribute to the general dampening effect of the newly constructed speed bumps.
Could it be that all this activity is a precursor to the creation of a one way in Village Lane? Perchance a one lane one way? If this idle speculation is accurate, then the tar that needs to be ripped up in the parking lot can be used sensibly to resurface the worst parts of Village Lane and a series of angled parking bays can be created on the farm village side of the lane so as to provide handy, safe and - for the first time - legal parking for the overflow of patrons of the farm village's various attractions. This is in addition to the on site parking that has not yet been developed for reasons best known to the farm village. The creation of a one way will make Village Lane even safer and the bumps will ensure that vehicles exiting parking bays do not come to grief.
It is a great pity that it has taken three years and repeated resort to litigation to get to the point where this elegant 'win-win' solution could at long last be a possibility. It is a greater pity that NEAG's valuable but scarce resources have had to be poured into the pursuit of litigation when there are trees to be planted and an entire environment that is in jeopardy. But, the greatest pity of all is that the owners of the farm village have shown so little respect for the rule of law and the basic tenets of the Constitution. They should remember those lyrics: "You don't know what you've got, till it's gone".
Paul Hoffman SC
17 January, 2012.
