Environmental work

What started as dog walks around Zandvlei in 2016 – noticing the increasing amount of litter and pollution affecting the estuary, has over the past nine years led to my increasing involvement in nature conservation. This includes my own clean-ups and also at one point employing someone part-time to collect the litter which washes up on the shores of Zandvlei.

In 2024 I moved to the north west side of Zandvlei, living next to one of the vlei’s tributaries – the Westlake River. Soon after I met another resident, Hannes Kok, and we have teamed up to form the Friends of Orchard Village waterways conservation group. We were later joined by Alex Sparg, a local landscape architect. We have received good support from the local community and have also been backed by ward counsellor for the area, Carolynne Franklin, as well as City of Cape Town officials.

I have also had the opportunity to make contact with various conservation organisations such as the Zandvlei Catchment Management forum, Zandvlei Trust, Muizenberg Clean Green and Kera, hopefully opening doors for future partnerships.

For more on the Friends of Orchard Village project, please visit the website I created – https://orchardvillage-waterways.co.za/ or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/foovw