Cleaning up the garden
After Covid and other setbacks, a national treasure is being revived
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, acclaimed as world class, has taken a knock. Now it is up to senior garden manager Werner Voigt and his team to nurture its recovery and growth.
Voigt, 47, who has held the oversight role since 2019, is confident this is possible.
He tells the FM his favourite plants are from the Vachellia (formerly Acacia) and Erythrina groups that are “tough and can withstand much suffering in the wild”. These include the coral tree and the hardy camel thorn.
“These are the two particular genera that I love very much They show me something about life and tenacity and resilience. It’s inspirational.”
He believes people are similar.
Few gardens can match the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Its maintenance was set back at least two years during Covid when, for long periods, staff were not on site to do the necessary weeding, cultivation and planting. Systems were also broken by lack of use; irrigation pipes became blocked. This has led to complaints, especially from Capetonians.
Kirstenbosch applied for R40m for maintenance in 2024. It was granted some funding that Voigt expects will be cut, along with other budgets funded by the National Treasury. However, funds have been committed to important projects. Work is gathering pace and he expects to show the public significant improvements within six months, by spring.
“Botanical gardens are dynamic spaces; they change,” he says. “They are exposed to various elements, to various legislators and policy changes, and so it’s not going to be the same as it was 10 years ago. But what [the public] needs to take heart from is that we’ve got competent staff who are keen to maintain the gardens.
“We are in a period of transition and that transition will take time and it will take kindness and patience.”
Maintenance will be boosted from April, with the appointment of 25 matriculants who will help clear streams, do bed maintenance and remove alien vegetation. The Young Professional Development Programme is funded by the government of Flanders.
Voigt has had a relationship with plants from a young age, growing up on the Cape Flats. He recalls his mother’s ability to take cuttings, start them off in coffee tins and coax them to grow even where they weren’t supposed to.
After school Voigt planned to become a fashion designer. He enrolled at the Cape Peninsula
University of Technology but en route to a class came across a department offering plant sciences. He went there instead and obtained a national diploma in horticulture before doing a BTech in horticulture at Unisa. In 1998 and 1999 Voigt worked as an intern at Kirstenbosch.
His connection with the garden was strengthened when he got engaged to Carmen, now his wife. He invited her for a walk to the Dell at Kirstenbosch and surprised her with a ring he had hidden near a pool.
Today Voigt lives in Kirstenbosch with Carmen, a teacher, his adult daughter and son both studying and teenage daughter.
Before taking up his role in 2019, Voigt spent time at the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden as horticulturist and curator, as well as at Harold Porter National Botanical Garden in Betty’s Bay as curator.
His plans for the future include a “living museum” that will tell the stories of the communities who laid the foundation for the garden in the early years after it was established 101 years ago.
Plans include discussions with the Iziko Museum and descendants of families who were evicted from Protea Village across the road from the garden. Land has subsequently been returned to them.
Telling their stories “is a sad need”, he says.
“We always talk about the science, the taxonomy, the beauty and diversity of the plants. But behind that is the foundational work done by the first communities employed as workers here from the 1930s onwards.” Their stories are important and should be clearly linked to the garden’s history, Voigt says.
Kirstenbosch continues to improve its accessibility. Schoolchildren are bused in every day as part of one of the oldest environmental education programmes in South Africa, started in the 1930s. Pensioners have free access on Tuesdays.
Another goal is to establish a seed bank. For now the seeds of special plants are being sent to the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens, London. “It’s time for Africa to start looking after its own seeds,” says Voigt.