By David Macgregor,
A Port Alfred pensioner who saved a wild fig tree from being bulldozed 35 years ago has changed his mind and now wants the municipality to chop it down – to try to and stop birds “pooping” on his house.
Although reluctant to see the tree gone, Bernard Davies admitted he was at his wits’ end after hundreds of birds descended on the wild fig this year and then pooped on his nearby roof – contaminating his drinking water.
His wife Marie, who has a “very sensitive throat”, said she had been forced to filter, bleach and boil rain water collected in huge tanks from the roof before they could even think about drinking it.
“I am just as fond of trees as anybody else,” Bernard explained. “It is beautiful…that is why I took a spade and moved it next door onto municipal land in the first place.”
Thirty-five years later, Davies now wants the Ndlambe Municipality to chop down the tree, at their expense.
In a letter to DA ward councillor Louise Swanepoel, the homeowner wrote that hundreds of birds “feasting on the wild fig berries and voiding of excrement (dung) onto my walls tank and roof” had become a living nightmare.
After spending thousands on top quality paints and washing his walls at least “half a dozen” times, and still unable “to get rid of the marks”, Davies now wants the local authority to remove the tree.
“Apart from the fact that the dung is very acid causing damage to the paint (it cost me over four thousand rand to paint house and roof 18 months ago) the excrement runs off the roof into my drinking water and may possibly cause stomach problems,” Bernard wrote.
Potential ailments included “typhoid or enteric fever, one does not know where birds drink water” the letter said.
Admitting he never had problems before, Bernard said the sudden influx of “mainly (redwing) starlings in their hundreds,” trumpeter and common hornbills, mouse birds and “recently a flock of green pigeons” could be attributed to a prolonged and particularly severe drought in the area.
After almost a month of being bombarded by the mess, the birds had moved off – when all the fruit was gone.
“I am in the firing line here…it affects my neighbours little. There is bird poop all over,” he moaned – while pointing out marks on the walls.
To try and discourage the “1000 bloody redwing starlings” from sitting on a phone line near his roof, Davies admitted he had to resort to trying to scare them off using a catapult.
Swanepoel said she had no problem with the tree being removed – “as long as it costs the municipality nothing”.
“I have been there and seen the terrible mess on the walls. I sympathise with them.”
Swanepoel said the local authority, however, could not be expected to fork out an estimated R10000 to remove the tree.
Municipal spokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa yesterday said he knew nothing about the controversial tree.
