Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is aware of concern relating to its use of herbicides, especially Roundup, in the Garden and would like to clarify its policy in this regard.

Kirstenbosch has not used Roundup made by Monsanto since 2009. We use a product called Kleenup which is made by Enviro, to control weeds in paved areas.

Kleenup is registered in South Africa for use in Agriculture, Horticulture and in Gardens and is the safest registered herbicide available.

According to many publications the most undesirable chemical in Roundup is the surfactant POEA. Kleenup does not contain POEA.

We use Kleenup only on paved areas, twice a year. It is not sprayed on lawns.

It should also be acknowledged that blanket spraying thousands of hectares of GMO crops, destined for human consumption, with Roundup is a vastly different practice to spot spraying weeds in paving with Kleenup.

In addition we use Kleenup in a responsible manner and have tested and found it to be effective at less than half the recommended dosage.

When spraying Kleenup we dilute it with water at a rate of 100 ml Kleenup to 15 litres water. The recommended rate of application is 225 ml to 15 litres of water.

Kirstenbosch has tested  an organic herbicide containing acetic acid but unfortunately this product has not been registered and is not available yet.

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