The Friends of Rietvlei was formed in February 1990. Residents of Tableview and Milnerton were becoming concerned about increasing development in the Rietvlei Wetland Area. At the same time the Wildlife Society was beginning the promote the idea of Friends Groups affiliated to themselves and it was decided to form a Friends of Rietvlei group to raise funds for the purchase of land at Rietvlei to prevent any further development. In 1990 a master plan was developed and WWF and the Mazda Wildlife Fund donated a Mazda to raffle for Project Rietvlei. This raised about R100,000 and became the first amount in the Municipal Rietvlei Fund today. Caltex had been approached about joining as Corporate Members and they were interested in becoming more involved, so they decided to fund WWF to buy Milnerton Estates land, and this was acquired in 1993. Lobbying for Transnet owned land went ahead until 1996 when the land was donated to WWF. The Friends of Rietvlei had been instrumental in all these negotiations.

Friends of Rietvlei is now focusing on adult education, school groups, guided tours, assisting the Blaauwberg Administration in the management of Rietvlei, and advising on various other environmental Committees in the area. We also constructed the first bird hide at Rietvlei.