Cape Town - For the first time, electric lights have been installed in the historic Company’s Garden, making it and the surrounding area far safer at night. Security cameras have also been installed as a further safeguard.

This precious parcel of green and shade in the middle of a busy post colonial city is the remaining half of a garden planted in the 1650’s by the Dutch East India Company.

The garden was superimposed upon a landscape occupied occasionally by hunter gatherers and modified by pastoralists, who migrated seasonally for hundreds of years.

It led to dispossessing people who had first used this landscape around the base of the mountain, establishing the historic city, introducing agriculture into the region and the beginning scientific investigations into the flora of the Cape Floral Kingdom.

Announcing that the Garden will have extended opening hours, from 7am to 10pm, during the festive season, Deputy Mayor Grant Haskin drew an historical analogy.

In December 1799 the then British governor of the Cape, George Yonge, tried to acquire exclusive use of the Garden by denying Capetonians access.

Public outrage forced him to withdraw his decision and Lady Anne Barnard, writing at the time, said: “For 150 years they had enjoyed walking in the shade of those oaks ….women particularly furious.”

By installing lights and security cameras the city has again taken back the Garden, this time at night, and granted people safer access.

On a warm summer’s night it’s the ideal place for a family picnic and the extended opening hours will run from 12 December to 31 January next year.

During this period the Garden Restaurant will remain open until 10pm.

The lighting project involved the installing 79 bollard lights and 50 spot lights which were strategically placed within the rose garden, around significant historical trees and within the fish pond to enhance the fountain.

All lighting complies with the Kyoto protocol regarding light pollution.

Five security cameras were erected to improve security for visitors to the Garden. These cameras are connected to the CCTV control room of the city and are monitored by staff from the city on a 24 hour basis.

The control room is connected directly to the Metro Police and the Central City Improvement District security personnel via radio and they respond immediately when called to any emergency

The Director of City Parks, Christa le Roux, said that an increased security contingent with up to six officers will be deployed in the Garden. In addition, a social worker has been employed to assist indigent and homeless people in the area.

With the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806 British dominion over the Cape was entrenched until 1961 when South Africa became a Republic.

In the late eighteen hundreds, public access to and use of the Gardens was eroded as the British government increasingly annexed portions of it for institutional buildings.

This led to its area being reduced by half between 1806 and the early 1900s. In addition to the Houses of Parliament, Tuynhuys and the National Gallery being built on its boundaries, portions of the Gardens were annexed for the building of St George’s Cathedral in 1827 and the Public Library in 1860.

In 1892 the Municipality of Cape Town took over the day to day administration of the Gardens but ownership was still vested in the Government and, a year later, the South African Museum was built on what was felt to be the most scenic part of the Gardens - something which so distressed the Garden’s commissioners at the time that they all resigned.

“This is the first time in the three hundred and fifty five years since Jan van Riebeeck and his gardener, the appropriately-named Hendrik Boom, started the Company’s Garden that they will be lit at night,” said Councillor Haskin, who will officially switch on the new lights on 12 December.

"The types of lights used and the way they had been installed would ensure that there was sufficient illumination to provide security and create a pleasant ambience, but that they would not be so bright that would impact adversely on the occupants of surrounding properties,” Mr le Roux added.

The Company’s Garden, frequented by an estimated 700 000 visitors annually, will benefit from an allocation of R1 000 439.00 from the City’s Capital Budget for the 2007/2008 financial year.

Various new projects will be initiated in line with the approved Development and Design Guidelines for the Company’s Garden. Some of these include:

restoring “the Bothy”, the old farm labourers' quarters, used in the 1850s by the Botanical Gardens Committee as a meeting venue, to enable it to be used as a café / coffee shop / picnic take-away outlet to serve the ‘more affordable’ end of the market;

• using the Director’s House as a mixed-use facility with the possible installation of a restaurant;

• upgrading sections within the Paddock area, where the majority of events take place, by providing paved surfaces, street furniture and litter bins;

• to complement these investments, the Central City Improvement District (CCID), using the non-profit NGO, Straatwerk, assisted with graffiti removal (particularly in public toilets) and cleaning up litter, especially after events.

A BBC film crew will be filming in the Garden as one of a series of programs on historical gardens of the world. This will significantly enhance the international profile of the Company’s Garden. - BuaNews