Heritage Cases

Kendal Power Station is a coal-fired power station situated south west of the town of Ogies. The Power Station became operational in 1993, and it relies on coal to generate electricity. Conversely, coal generates ash which must be dumped/ and or descarded. The current ash disposal facility of the Kendal Power Station is however running out of space. In addition, the life span of Kendal has also been extended to 2053, and it would render the available ash disposal space inadequate to accommodate continuation of disposal. As a result, Eskom is currently extending the continuation of the current ash disposal activity onto Eskom owned land with an estimated footprint of 310ha. An archaeological survey was conducted by PGS Heritage (2014) and noted an area which could possibly be a grave site. PGS Heritage recommended a further inspection on the area assumed to be a grave due to the fact that their assessment of the site was hampered by dense vegetation. Vhubvo Consultancy was then appointed in 2021 to further assess the area, as well as to conduct any heritage monitoring within the Power Station. The physical survey conducted by Vhubvo, as well as Google Earth imagery and historic aerial photographs are not clear in regard to whether these being a grave or terracing. The entire area was however used for farming purposes in the past, and these features possibly dates to the late 1950s when the area was used for farming purposes. It is thus possible that the resultant cause of these features could be one of the two,1) stone assemblages as a result of terracing do to past farming activities (which are also prevalent throughout the wider area), 2) or a grave site. Considering the uncertainty in regard the context of these features as highlighted above, we are requesting to conduct a GPR survey and test excavations in the two-area measuring 5 square meter each. This application is exclusively for test examination, and pertains to Section 36(3) of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999). .