A garden gnome in a Western Cape estate has been issued with a notice to remedy after committee members determined that his expression was “not in keeping with the architectural language”.
The gnome, who has stood beside a lavender bush since March, is accused of introducing a third shade of red into a development permitted only two.
Homeowner Steven Petersen initially assumed the email was a joke.
“Then I saw the attachment was called Final_Final_Gnome_Contravention_v7.pdf.”
The committee maintains that the matter concerns consistency.
“If we allow one cheerful little man with a fishing rod, where does it end?” asked chairman Clive, standing beneath a Greek column attached to a Tuscan townhouse. “A duck? A wheelbarrow? Individuality?”
An emergency site inspection established that the gnome was 11 centimetres closer to the pavement than indicated on an approved landscaping plan nobody had previously known existed.
Steven offered to move him.
“That would address the location,” Clive explained. “We still have the attitude.”
A neighbour submitted a character reference describing the gnome as quiet, reliable and considerably less intrusive than Clive’s leaf blower.
The reference was rejected because it had not been submitted on the correct form.
Steven has since appointed an attorney, who asked the committee to identify the rule allegedly breached.
The committee responded by forming a legal subcommittee.
Its first recommendation was a temporary moratorium on questions.
Meanwhile, the gnome has been turned to face the wall pending the outcome of proceedings.
Clive called this “a constructive interim solution”.
Steven called it “the first time anyone in this estate has actually minded their own business”.
