Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Cape Town's Parks Department performed unnecessary tree cutting at a local park during August. Two contractors performed the job, Stoddard's and Sunshine. It took a morning. I estimate work of this scope costs R100-150,000. From a horticultural aspect, the cutting was excessive and damaged the trees and their landscaping and environmental purpose. Around half were moderately cut, the remainder severely. Pruning was inconsistent - some trees were left with more growth, others inbetween and a third cut so severely that all that remains is a fringe on top.  All this is indicative of inexpert, unprofessional work and no supervision. As is typical of soft city contracts, apparently Parks did not provide a job specification. There was no supervision of the cutters and no supervision by Parks of the contractors. From the nature of the pruning and the manner Stoddard's and Sunshine performed the work, the workers' were largely unskilled.  I contacted Parks manager Jacques Cedra...

The absence of project and contract direction and supervision in the Cape Town's Parks and environmental services departments and the lack of political oversight by ward and mayoral committee councillors of these departments is creating problems for quality of service.  I will illustrate the problem - absence of contract specification and supervision - with Parks Department's tree pruning contracts but I believe it's also city-wide with contracts like invasive species control and soft - non-engineering - contracts. August is the last month to prune greenery and prepare gardens for summer. There's an old saying that when the city prunes public open space trees, it's time for homeowners to do theirs. But from what I've seen, it's best not to follow their modus operandi: over-cutting that damages trees. There's the right way and the wrong way to do it. The city and its contractors follow the principle that cutting more and more is always better even when it...