The ANC and EFF need to stop making threats about making Cape Town ungovernable. Because of course people are going to suspect them now.

Thank you always for your on point reporting

Tx for reporting on this issue. One VERY impottant point missed: the western cape biome is fire managed, i.e. it has to burn naturallu to rejuvenate. If the wc was uninhabited & in prestine condition the fynbos would burn naturally every few years to remove old vegetation & stimulate seed growth (seeds only germinate once a burn occurs). Natural fynbos fires burn at a low temp and very slowly so animals are able to escape / evade fires. As properly noted alien vegetation makes fires burn hotter & more quickly so fires spreads quicker, burns hotter so there's more damage & more dead animals. Animal life in the CoCT area have been decimated so few animals to keep undergrowth trimmed hence more vegetation load that burns. This is exacerbated by firè suppression activities. As more people live & use the natural environment within CoCT, and leave litter & are careless etc, this increases the liklihood of fires starting. Property owners should also be informed about what they landcaping plants they use on their properties. People who use city braai facilities also careless re fire use & littering, and camp sites not cleared of litter often enough. It's estimated that around 80% of people will live in cities by 2050'ish. CoCT will experience high levels of urbanisation - the longer we delay poverty aleviation & social housing the more pressure on the CoCT natural areas (it's amazing that there is always land available for retirement places for rich people in CoCT, but nothing for social housing!) There used to be a Working for Water project where women especially are paid to remove alien vegetation - not sure if this project is still going. CoCT is c**p with community engagement - not adequately making use of NGOs, volunteers & interested groups to help remove alien vegetation, protect wildlife etc, & assist with periodic controlled burns. CoCT should also be conferencing with indigenous communities in US, Canada & possibly Oz that have been fire managing their environments for centuries (California's biome is similarly fire managed, so forming a discussion group with other fire managed biome areas would be useful). And - lastly (I think) - climate change is going to exacerbate everything! CoCT urban planning & management is dismal to begin with and, while they do technically have a cc plan on paper, I'm not sure how much of it is being implemented. Of course SAs response to the cc crisis is also dismal - ignored by SA media in general (DM is the only media website with a dedicated cc page). SA is going to be severely affected by cc yet citizens remain largely ignorant & uninterested... at our peril.

Yip. And the fynbos is rejuvenated through fires.