Legal clash looms over blame for devastating 2017 Knysna fires

Photo of Knysna fire by Ivo Vegter.

4 May 2025

The Western Cape High Court has ruled that the Garden Route District Municipality should be given a chance to argue why it should not face a R17-million damages claim linked to the 2017 Knysna fires. This comes after the Knysna Municipality told the court that it was not its job to fight the devastating blazes – South Africa’s worst wildlife disaster to date.

The Knysna Local Municipality has won its legal battle and will soon argue before a judge that it can either not be sued for alleged failures during the devastating 2017 Knysna fires, or that the Garden Route District Municipality should be joined as a defendant in the R17-million damages claim filed by residents.

In its investigation, the Council for Scientific Research found that the Knysna fires had two main points of origin on 7 June 2017 – at Elandskraal and Kruisfontein. Investigators found that the Elandskraal fire was ignited by lightning in March 2017 and left to smoulder until 7 June when hot, windy conditions soon fuelled it into a mega-fire that caused extensive damage to property and the forests around Knysna.

Several residents filed a joint legal action against the Knysna Municipality, claiming that the municipality failed to fight the fire in its beginning stages, setting it up to become one of the worst wildfire disasters in the history of South Africa.

But the Knysna Municipality, relying on the Municipal Systems Act, says it was not its job to fight the fire at Elandskraal, but the job of the Garden Route District Municipality (then known as the Eden Municipality).

Knysna fires A house burns in Knysna in 2017. (Photo: Twitter)

There were three expert reports produced on the Knysna fire: A report commissioned by AfriForum, written by arson investigator David Klatzow, found that it was caused by lightning, with smouldering occurring for weeks as local fire brigades did not attend to it.

A subsequent report on the Elandskraal fire, compiled by Clinton Manuel, the former head of the Knysna Municipality Fire Brigade, concluded that it was caused by arson.

This report, however, was debunked by another report from the Council for Scientific Research (CSIR). That report used data that confirmed the fire had been caused by lightning and subsequent hot and windy weather conditions.

The CSIR further wrote in its report that “fragmented approaches to fire management” were not effective.

According to the CSIR report, at the time the Garden Route District Municipality’s Fire and Rescue Service had a total of 40 permanent staff and 18 volunteers, with resources strategically distributed across three municipalities: George (George), Hessequa (Riversdale) and Kannaland (Ladismith).

There were normally three firefighters and one volunteer on duty per shift in Hessequa and Kannaland, and six in George. In total, the District has six skid units, two bushfire trucks, two tankers, one rescue unit and two hazmat resources – to serve an area of more than 23,000km2.

The report found that because of the distances Garden Route firefighters had to travel it could also significantly delay their responses.

Municipal fire and rescue services were also underresourced – although Working on Fire, fire management units like those at CapeNature, SANParks and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), again provide additional capacity.

Statistics, however, showed that at the time of the 2017 fires the levels of staffing per 1,000 of the population at the Garden Route District Municipality was 0.41 firefighters per 1,000 – less than half available in other countries. In the US, Canada and Britain this figure is about one firefighter per 1,000 of the population.

Residents and property owners have put the legal blame for failing to protect their properties on the Knysna Municipality.

However, the municipality said in papers before court that it was not its job and is pointing the finger at the Garden Route District Municipality.

A section of the 2017 Knysna blaze. (Photo: Ivo Vegter)

The Knysna Municipality has also asked the court to rule whether it has statutory or other responsibilities for firefighting services in general or in respect of fires.

According to the Municipal Structures Act, the legal team for the Knysna Municipality argued, a district municipality’s functions and powers include: Firefighting services serving the area of the district municipality as a whole, which includes planning, coordination and regulation of fire services; specialised firefighting services such as mountain, veld and chemical fire services; coordination of the standardisation of infrastructure, vehicles, equipment and procedures and the training of fire officers.

As a result the Knysna Municipality, a local municipality, claims that the fire did not fall within its jurisdiction and that it neither had the capacity nor the resources to fight the fire.

It claims that it had reported the fires to the Garden Route District Municipality and the Western Cape government.

The plaintiffs’ legal team, however, argues that the Knysna Municipality had failed to seek timely assistance from other entities, including Eden Municipality, the national government or aerial firefighting resources, or did so too late.

But according to the judgment evidence will be led that Knysna municipal officials had represented to residents that they were responsible for fighting the fire at Elandskraal and as a result the fire was not reported to the Garden Route District Municipality and that there were other legal instruments such as the Constitution, the relevant Knysna Municipality by-laws, the Disaster Management Act, the Fire Brigade Services Act and the National Veld and Forest Fire Act that would have compelled the Knysna Municipality to act.

Judge Melanie Holderness ruled that the issue of whether the Garden Route District Municipality should properly have been joined as a defendant should be determined before the matter proceeds on the merits. DM

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