Heritage Cases

Door of Hope is proposing the establishment of a new village on the farm Hartsenbergfontein 332IQ near Walkerville within the Sedibeng District Municipality of the Gauteng Province. In particular, the project which will cover a surface portion of approximately 24ha, will consist of the following: - Residential House - Office Block - School Buildings - Dining Hall - Sports Fields / Courts - Vegetable Gardens - Baby House - Medical Facility - Early Childhood Development Centre - Play Areas - Main Roads - Paved walkways/ bike paths An Environmental Basic Assessment (BA) process was undertaken and an Archaeological Impact Assessment (AIA) was completed as part of the application1. During the course of the BA it became apparent that vegetation had been cleared for the construction of the three housing units in the project area, which is classified as a Critical Biodiversity Area (CBA). In addition, a dirt road and a 10kl sewerage package plant had been constructed and these activities triggered Listed Activity 12 in Listing Notice 3. As such, a Section 24G process was effected. This memorandum details the results of a heritage screening of areas affected by the S24G application. An assessment is made of potential impacts on heritage resources emanating from the site clearing and construction, by investigating heritage signatures and potential site distribution and occurrence in the immediate surroundings of the affected area. Ultimately, the screening predicts and assesses the level of impact that the developments might have had on the heritage landscape at the time of construction. This was done by means of a study of background information on the area’s archaeology, site inspection observations and a detailed aerial survey of the impacted areas, both before and after the impacts had occurred.