Rock art has taken on a new meaning in Kommetjie, where people are stacking stones to form sculptures.
|||Rock art has taken on a new meaning in Kommetjie, where people are stacking stones to form sculptures.
But the City of Cape Town and SA National Parks (Sanparks) have warned that not only is this dangerous, it also has a negative effect on the balance of nature.
There are about 200 examples on the Kommetjie coastline between the Nerina Road boardwalk and Slangkop lighthouse, said a city spokesman.
The city said people had been moving rocks from the spots where the natural coastal processes had placed them and rearranging them into pyramids, towers and other formations.
These sculptures occurred below the high-water mark as well as higher up on the beach, away from the high-water mark along the boardwalk.
Darryl Colenbrander, the city’s coastal co-ordinator, said the biggest concern was the safety of people.
The bigger base rocks weighed up to 150kg, with smaller ones stacked on top of them.
He said the removal and stacking of rocks created an unstable terrain. The rock structures could collapse and roll.
Given the weight of some of the rocks, it could cause serious injury to beachgoers.
Colenbrander said he suspected it was some kind of artistic expression, and that most of the structures were made at sunset.
He said he had seen similar sculptures elsewhere, but never on such a large scale.
Sanparks area manager Paul Sieben said the practice was destructive to several natural species, and and have a negative impact on the coastal environment.
The seashore, including the rocky shore, was formed through millennia of tidal and wave action, and Sieben said the stacking of rocks disturbed not only the balance, but affected a variety of micro-fauna that sought refuge under the rocks.
Any alteration of this habitat would impact negatively on the marine life associated with rocky shores.
The city and Sanparks warned that the seashore was defined as coastal public property, held in trust by the state, as provided for in the Seashore Act of 1935 and the Integrated Coastal Management Act of 2009.
As such, the state ensured that the coastal public property was used, managed, protected, conserved and enhanced in the interests of the whole community.
Because the section of the coastal area below the high-water mark fell within the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area, there was an even greater need to avoid any action that could lead to the disturbance or destruction of the area.
Sieben said SANPark staff members would speak to beachgoers and “educate” them about the practice, but if the rock stacking persisted, action would be taken against the artists.
Sanparks is to start dismantling the formations.
The area will be monitored with regular patrols by Sanparks and law enforcement officers. - Cape Argus