Some background on this proposed project:
The K56 has been a proposed road for more than 30 years but it has never been proclaimed. Recently the provincial authority, under pressure from developers, has declared that a small section of the K56 has become necessary to service large developments outside of the Kyalami area, namely the Steyn City development along William Nichol and the Riversands and Helderfontein developments by Century Properties.
This part of the K56 road is planned from William Nicol (just north of Dainfern) and transverses through the middle of Glenferness and joins up with Main Road at Zinnia Road up to Maple Road.
The construction of this road will severely impact on the ecology, economy and social structure of the area.
Kyalami/Glenferness forms part of the GECKO conservancy. This area has one of the largest and most viable equestrian industries in the southern hemisphere, providing thousands of jobs directly as well as indirectly (downstream in the feed and tack industries, for example).
Results of the March 2008 Equine Survey of the Greater Kyalami Area undertaken by GEKCO shows that the total capital investment invested in this area is close to R800million.
This is how the area will be impacted;
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- As home owners who bought specifically in this area to ride their horses move away, more and more development will be allowed and every horse owner is potentially at risk of either giving up horse riding or moving much further afield to accommodate their sport.
- Horse riders who dare to continue to ride near the roads risk harm and even death to themselves and their horses with this road that will have high traffic volumes at high speed.
- As riders give up riding massive job losses will be on the cards for horse grooms, those who erect stables, horse arenas, horse riding instructors, riding yards, feed merchants, saddlery shops as well as the many vet surgeries in the area.
- The Lipizzaner center would have to move
- One of the last remaining open spaces with sensitive ecologies such as grasslands and wetlands will be lost forever with the resultant loss of the threatened grass owl as well as black-backed jackal, scrub hares, hedgehogs, mongoose, terrapins, the African Bullfrog and numerous other fauna and flora species
- The viability of the Gauteng Horse Society in Kyalami will be impacted
- We need YOU TO SIGN NOW to help stop the destruction of our wildlife, wetlands and horse industry!
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