by Carmel Rickard
Have you been to see the flamingos at Kimberley’s Kamfers Dam yet? If you have not, you’d better get there quickly: even though this is one of the great birding sights of the world with potential to become a major tourist attraction, the local municipality has happily approved a new development project in the area that will scare off all the birds.
News of the proposed Northgate development reached the rest of the world last month when Carte Blanche ran footage of a public meeting on the issue followed by an interview with the then executive mayor of Sol Plaatje municipality (Kimberley), Patrick Lenyibi.
The mayor was understandably keen for the city to host a development that would see work and houses for many people, but he could not accept that there was a problem about siting it on the shores of Kamfers Dam where tens of thousands of Lesser Flamingos are breeding for the first time.
