WHEN IS A VELDFIRE NOT A VELDFIRE? Gouda Boerdery Bk v Transnet 2005 5 SA 490 (SCA)

Abstract

How does one identify the land on which a veldfire starts? Most people would answer that it would be the land on which the fire originated. This is not really stating anything different from the question, which could lead one to conclude that the answer is self-evident. According to the Supreme Court of Appeal, however, the land on which a veldfire starts is not the land on which a veldfire starts, if the fire is not a veldfire when it is on that land. This suggests, certainly in the context of the National Veld Fire and Forest Fire
Act 101 of 1998, that the answer to the question posed at the top of this paragraph is not so self-evident after all. The case of Gouda Boerdery Bk v Transnet (2005 5 SA 490 (SCA)) is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it is the first reported case in which application of section 34 of the National Veld Fire and Forest Fire Act 101 of 1998 (hereinafter “the Act”) is considered. Second, the Court’s interpretation and application of the section are, in my opinion, wrong (as can be surmised from my introductory comments).