Hout and About
News from Residents’
Association of
rahb@houtbay.org.za
www.houtbay.org.za
August
2009
Chapman’s Peak Update
April
Protest March against the continued closure
In the last Hout & About, our report on Chappies concluded “We
anxiously await a response from the MEC, but nothing received to date.”
The MEC replied in his follow up correspondence, “I have responded to every communication on this issue including your
own. I have given a general summary to the media via Yeld.” Note: John Yeld
is the environmental journalist to the Cape Argus.
The RAHB is grateful to the MEC for his continued support and input into
the Chappies debacle.
In a subsequent letter, Chairman Len Swimmer received the following
update from MEC Robin Carlisle:
“As long as we are able to keep
Chappies open, it will remain a toll road. And understand, that is the problem. Chappies is prohibitively expensive to
mantain; an extremely high risk proposition from many points of view, and the
sandstone cliffs will continue inexorably to decline. Some of this is due to
nature - much of it, to appalling decisions made by previous ANC
governments. As a result, Chappies will never be financially viable, even as a
toll road. Despite this, we will reopen and keep it open as long as nature
allows us. We are negotiating for one small plaza and all the sensible
concessions we can get. Please accept, Len, that it will be much better than in
the recent past, but there are problems, mainly geo-technical, that can now
only be contained and not reversed.”
The Association supports all efforts to open Chappies, Chairman Len
Swimmer goes on to say; “I do think there needs to be some holding to terms
here as far as definite undertakings about the way to go forward and that both
Provincial government and Entelini should spell them out. Otherwise it will be
the same old same old refrain for another year or two”.
This raises another series of interesting questions about Chapman’s
Peak Drive put forward by one of our residents.
Tolling CPD = Zero sum operation
The financial information available to the public,
points to a rather dubious business model of extracting taxes to merely cover the
expense of extracting taxes.
This has been internationally discredited. The
perverse result of this type of economic activity is to lessen the public's
utilisation of the taxed "asset" which in turn reduces economic
activity associated with that "asset", which reduces any possible
multiplier effects. In the case of Chappies, it distorts the use of other
roads to the detriment of that infrastructure. In addition, there is the knock
on effect of thousands of people and businesses losing productive time during
the day.
Chapman's
Provinces have the legal right to raise taxes in their
own right, separate to what they receive from the National Fiscus. Through our
Road Licence fees, we pay for that use.
If the Economics of maintaining CPD are such that the
Provincial Government (taxpayers) are in fact paying for this maintenance
anyway, due to low toll
collection, why bother maintaining a system that is
fiercely loathed? Rather abandon the
experiment and at the same time gain huge popularity with the public.
Let us
know your thoughts on this matter by commenting via our website to our
webmaster, Pierre or our Chairman. We
encourage open debate and discussion and look forward to hearing your views.
Champions of Courage
Our local James House
have launched a new campaign to reach everyone in
“In the past year, we have served over 800 vulnerable
children from the Imizamo Yethu, Hangberg and greater
Please
contact:Michele Cruywagen
Fundraiser: James
House
(021) 790 5616
0741821888
Two sides to every story
Our controversial Mountain Sale continues,
with daily calls enquiries to the RAHB to find out more information.
The violence that erupted recently highlights
the
Passionate response of residents to the possible
Sale of this iconic piece of land.
On the 29th of July the “Mail and
Guardian” ran an
interesting article from the other side of
the coin.
It transpires that marine engineer Glann
Colthurst
and four business partners purchased the
piece of
ground as a retirement investment, never
expecting
SAN Parks threats of expropriation.
Bidding was opened at the controversial auction
but there were no bids, and buyers quickly dispersed in the face of the angry
and violent Hangberg protestors.
We are told closed bidding will now take place
with offer considerations scheduled for the end of July. However, SAN Parks have indicated they will
continue with attempts at expropriation.
Len Swimmer commented; "The land in question is zoned, rural which
permits only a single dwelling, and there is no road access to the site and
none will be permitted by Table Mountain National Park.”
Colthurst told the Mail & Guardian his company had tried to
negotiate a sale price with SANParks, which had offered R500 000 for the
mountain in April this year. Colthurst said this was a "totally
unrealistic price". The property had been valued at R11 million for estate
purposes when one of his business partners recently passed away.
Ward
project proposals 2010/2011
Twenty Ten seems a magical
number with the imminent World Cup Soccer, but we must remember life continues
beyond 2010 and the RAHB has already submitted proposals to the Ward Forum for
Capital projects for this period.
Repairs to Victoria Road
bridge. Metal slats have been stolen, making bridge
unsafe for pedestrians – children could fall into the poisoned waters below.
Completion of
Drainage off Kronendel
Primary Sports Field to be improved and
additional slots put in place.
Widening of Andrews Rd exit onto Main Rd.
Installation of another row of gabions over
the ravine, and levelling the unpaved section of
Positioning of benches along Military
Road Trail (where one was originally)
and also on
Positioning of benches along the old
Operational project proposals include:
- Grading
of the gravel road to parking areas on the commonage.
- Formalisation
of the parking area serving the Scout Hall and Community Centre.
- Maintenance
of stormwater system on the commonage.
- Reconditioning
of the laterite path up to
- Clearing
and removal of alien vegetation and refuse and re-establishing the old
path over the top part of the forested dunes above Red Sails.
Town
Planning update
Steers –
The
Association objected to the application for Erf 226 Victoria Ave (Steers) for a
departure form zoning scheme regulations as follows:
Neither
the owner Mr SM du Plessis, nor the Applicant Mr K Tsakiroglow, give any
motivation for their request for the numerous departures and the full set of plans
for the building are not at hand for us to view.
The
letter dated 29 June 2009, sent to the Durr Estates Centre (which has been
copied to us with the diagram Annexure D, are entirely unsuitable to make any
valid acceptance of this application. The brevity of it could be construed as
an attempt to hide the true nature of the application and the full extent of
its consequences.
The
diagram submitted indicates 10 parking bays, but 2 are not on the property at
all and 6 are perpendicular off the street parking, such as the notorious
situation across the street. This is absolutely against the public policy, as
the case across the street on
Without
the motivation for this application it is difficult to know why the applicant
finds it necessary to apply for storage rights on the street boundary. We
hereby, object to this departure.
Without
the motivation for this application we cannot see what the purpose is of the
extended deck that is applied for and we herby also object to this departure.
Finally,
we ask the question: where are the offending stairs that are relevant to the
waiver that is applied for in the application? We hereby object to this waiver
and departure.
It
appears to us, that this is an opportunistic application that is not clear and
every effort is made to conceal the real issues and a host of departures and
waivers are asked for and the very necessary Victoria Avenue Management Plan
for public parking is sought to be totally ignored, the consequences of which
would be dire for all of the community of Hout Bay, as well as the neighbouring
shops and offices.
Baviaans Close – Vodacom Base Station
The Association has had huge problems with this application. Despite registering as an Interested and
Affected Party with EnviroAfrica, we did not receive the DBAR that was
distributed to selected neighbours of this proposed application and none of our
questions sent to EnviroAfrica were answered.
There is a groundswell of opposition to this application and we received
numerous questions on a weekly basis concerning this proposed application.
The residents living in Baviaans
Close and indeed Scott Estate, are not happy that the Mast and Base Station
encroaches on their surrounding houses and indicate to us that it is clear that
children live and play in the area and they feel and have indicated that it
should be moved.
We also note that Paragraph 6.4 of the council’s Cellular Telecommunication Infrastructure (CTI)
Policy asks that the projected RF emission levels (certified by a qualified
person) shall be provided as part of each and every application for the
erection of cellular base stations and, if the site is to be shared, the total
projected RF emission levels of the entire installation must be supplied to
Council as part of the application. Our Association cannot find any such
projected emission levels in the application.
e4454-Victorskloof-080215
An
application has been submitted by Mr. M. Smith on behalf of the owner (Mr A.D.
Gedrych) for the subdivision of erf 4574 into two portions of 1000 and 1 460
sq.m, and a departure from the minimum erf size.
The
Association submitted an objection based on the following points:
Erf 4574
is zoned Single Residential and Victorskloof Management Plan (VMP) stipulates a
minimum erf size of 4 000 sq.m for this and surrounding erven, while other
groups of erven in the VMP area are designated
at sizes 8000 and 2000 sq.m.
Erf 4574
is surrounded by erven with erf sizes of about 4 000m2 and only one erf of
about 2000 sq.m.
The
reason that the groups of erven were designated with certain sizes at the time
the VMP was drawn up was most certainly to ensure that the area would not
become one of high density, and to allow the area to maintain its rural quality
and ‘sense of place’ while, at the same time, allowing a certain variation in
erf size.
Although
the applicant suggests that allowing one erf holder to deviate will not make
much difference, we believe that this can and is likely to ‘open the flood
gates’ for further applications so that the inevitable cumulative effect will
be most significant – and then it will be too late to prevent a change in the very
nature of the area and its ‘sense of place’ that the VMP intended to
preserve. We believe that this rural
‘sense of place’ is still very valued as part of the heritage and essence of
the
The
Victorskloof Development Plan (VDP) very definitely still applies to erven in
this area, and has not been superseded by any other policy. Council must abide by its own policies and,
until it changes the VDP or amends it, the provisions thereof still apply. This Association will continue to object to,
and appeal to the highest level, against applications which do not comply with
established Council policy notwithstanding bad precedents, which may be used as
reasons for approval. A bad precedent
is, in fact, no precedent at all; it should be avoided.
We have, time and time again, pressed the
need to consider the incremental effects of development applications
particularly when infrastructure elements are impacted upon, especially of
erven situated in or near agriculturally zoned erven or erven with minimum
sizes. This departure would certainly
produce a precedent of a serious nature if approved and add most certainly to
the danger of encouraging further subdivision in a sensitively-zoned area of
the ‘rural’
Fragile Coastal
Margin, again under threat
APPEAL: Application
for Rezoning and Subdivision: Erf 559
Our
Association received notice of the opportunity to comment on the Appeal by the
applicant. (The application was refused
by the Goodhope SubCouncil, City of
It
appears that the Appeal document was composed/presented by Advocate Peter
Kantor (of Kantor Legal Services cc) who presumably has been employed by Mr
Christoffel Kannenberg (of Planning Partners) who in turn has been given
‘special power of attorney’ to act on behalf of the owners of the property in
question viz. Royal Fern Investments (Pty) Ltd represented locally by Mr Marcel
M. Hoogebeen. It is noted that the
property has changed ownership since the application was made in 2006. The previous owner was D Groep DV (it is
interesting that this company has abandoned the project, perhaps sensibly so).
Members
of our Association have read the Appeal document and hereby take the
opportunity to comment as follows:
1. The key issue in the Appeal is stated as
being whether the application is
desirable or not. Our Association
wrote two lengthy letters (19/3/07 and 11/02/08)
to the City of
While the City’s report to the Goodhope SubCouncil summarizes many of
the pertinent issues raised on this matter, we suggest that further detail of
why the proposal is not desirable is
contained in some of the individual letters that were submitted in the public
participation process. Should Province
decide to uphold the ‘out of time’ appeal and intervene in terms of issuing a
decision on the application, we request that the officials re-read the letters
carefully to understand the context of the issue and why so many people and
organizations are so vigorously opposed to a hard development within the
dune-field and regard it as being undesirable, and they (the Province) rule in
the same way as the Goodhope SubCouncil has.
In Item 23 of the Appeal (re Wind blown sand) the applicant
seems to purposefully misinterpret the
City’s to make it sound ridiculous so as to support their request to reject
this point. We believe the point made by
the City is clear and well made – it should not be rejected. It is difficult to mitigate wind blown
sand and therefore this stretch of dune-field should be allowed to operate
reasonably naturally and so absorb some of the energy by allowing dunes to move
within the system, and possibly introduce further measures to help manage the
sand dynamics to a certain extent.
Placing hard structures in an active dune field may be technically
possible but it is certainly not advisable as the management and maintenance
costs are great and not worth the effort.
To prevent sand movement onto or off of the property in question would
require that the adjacent land be stabilized and in particular the areas to the
south and east of erf 559. This would be
very difficult as the nature of a dune-field is to be mobile and to react to
changes in wind, etc. We see this
happening each year.
To our knowledge, the City (or the State) owns the land to the south
(and most of the other undeveloped land in this dune field). The City/State is highly unlikely to manage
this land in such a way as to purposefully facilitate the owner of erf 559 to
be able to build houses on it, particularly as it is so inappropriate to build
houses here anyway. This
inappropriateness has been very clearly illustrated over the last few years, by
the Beach Club development nearby, where they have continuous problems with
moving sand and wind.
Attention is drawn to the fact that the applicant has no right to build
houses or anything else on this land as it is zoned ‘amenities’. Land bought on speculation in the hope that
one might be able to persuade the City/Province that they should rezone the
land for hard development purposes poses a financial risk.
The applicant uses’ Northshore’ as an example (of where development has
occurred successfully in a sandy area), to justify development in this active
dune-field. Northshore is basically
fully developed (most of the land is under hard surfaces) and it is further
away from the coast and the source of the wind blown sand. It should probably not have been developed in
the first instance, but it has been and the City and the home-owners
(particularly those close to the sea) have to cope with large quantities off
sand invading their properties.
The beach dune-field is in a more susceptible position being closer to
the sea and the source of the wind-blown sand.
Also most of it is not under private ownership and it is not intended to
be used for hard development but will serve more appropriately as an ecological
buffer area between the sea and beach and the residential area north of
It is not
quite clear why an ‘Out off Time’ appeal has been used in preference to the
normal process which gives applicants the opportunity to appeal first to the
City Council (the ruling having been made by the Sub-Council) and next to the
Provincial Administration. It would
appear that the opportunity for the Municipal Appeal was not taken advantage of
by the applicant but nonetheless it would seem that the opportunity to appeal to
Province was still available in the normal process. It is not clear what the advantage is of
using the ‘out off time’ appeal process rather than the regular process, and
whether this would make any difference to the out come of an appeal.
IY Re-development
As many members are aware the RAHB has engaged vigorously with the
public participation process for the re-development of the forestry site and
the two buffer zones. The Association
went to great lengths to present a 6th option they felt better addressed
the problems inherent in the options presented by Chand.
In requesting a meeting with Piet van Zyl, Executive Director, Strategy
and Planning, City of Cape Town to discuss the consideration of Option 6, the
Association received a response from Mr Van Zyl confirming that the Option 6
had been presented to the City’s technical team and the stakeholder focus
groups with which the City has been engaging throughout the planning process.
“I confirm that the officials have
applied their mind to this option 6 and the preferred option that has been
presented in the final Basic Assessment Report (BAR), which has now been
circulated a final time to stakeholders for their comment (in terms of the
National Environment Management Act), which has been through a number of
iterations to reflect where possible the proposals in your option 6, as well as
the input of other stakeholders, remembering that the proposed layout must
accommodate a number of concerns and requirements, including but not only those
of the range of stakeholders who have participated in this public participation
process to date.”
Imizamo Yethu update
Molokwane
Road Extension
Concerns
were raised regarding the section of road above Hughenden gate towards the
reservoir. Councillor Hayward confirmed that it would be part of the
reconstructed
The
additional problem of encroachment of shacks and vegetation, along the pipe
track is a huge concern and there are ± 350 shacks that are causing a problem
as a result of their location. This matter will be reported on at the next
meeting and it was suggested that a truck go up Molokwane road once cleared to
ascertain as to how much encroachment would still exist in relation to
vehicular access.
Toilet facilities
11
toilets have been erected and the plumbing connections are underway. Screening
or fencing of the toilets is also under consideration to provide feedback at
next meeting regarding the type of screening/fencing surrounding the toilets.
5 chemical toilets have been placed at the
relocation area and an additional5 full flush toilets will be placed with water
and sewer connection, by July. The chemical toilets were placed there as it was
a matter of urgency. Provision however, was made for full flush toilets and it
is now planned to put the remaining full flush toilets at the relocation site,
and move the chemical toilets to another area of IY.
CPF
At the last meeting of the Community Policing Forum, Captain Bester reported that crime statistics
had been high during the month of May with a marked decrease in June. Poaching of
perlemoen was high and difficult to
stop. He said he had contacted the SAPS water wing and was hopeful that a
detachment could soon be seen based in
ATM related crimes were of concern and the
public must be very careful when making withdrawals at these machines. It was
strongly recommended that cash withdrawals whenever possible should be made
during office hours.
Cloning of credit cards at ATM is a sophisticated
procedure and the public must be watchful about people offering assistance or
cards apparently being “swallowed” by the machine. When making payment by
credit card ensure that the card does not leave your sight and if accidentally
dropped by the person you have handed the card to, be suspicious and check.
This could be when a card is being copied---it only takes seconds and all the
detail is copied.
The rowdy behaviour of patrons of the
Hangberg Diamond bottle store, particularly over weekends was highlighted and
Captain Bester said he would ensure the area was visited.
A complaint from the floor regarding lack of
support from SAPS again highlighted the high shortfall of members employed at
the station. Captain Bester again reiterated his “open door” policy for all
complaints.
The Chairperson requested Capt. Bester to
relay to the new station commander. Supt.Xesha, an open invitation to attend
CPF meetings in the future.
Pastor Frans from Hangberg reported that
300/400 people had attended the Youth Day celebrations held on 16th.
June and that R4300 had been received to fund the events.
CERT Bakkie Database
In view
of the ongoing and especially the recent day-time house robberies where the
common mode of transport appears to be the infamous “Bakkie” CERT
proposes a dedicated “Bakkie Database, similar to our
“Sedan Taxi” Project.
Michael
Kokhuis, Operations Manager of CERT appeals; “Could we ask you to communicate this request to ALL HBNW members, and
in particular our “Daylighters.” If you see any “suspicious Bakkies” in
the
-
Registration Number,
-
Make of Car, and colour,
-
Date / Time/ Location ,
-
and most important any other markings (names, etc) on the vehicle.
The
recording of this information should be indiscriminate, and maybe repetitive,
in that it may reveal a pattern.
The
observation details may be sent at any time to Michael Kokhuis by SMS, e-mail,
Fax or deposited in his (sign posted) Sorgh
Vliet Lodge post box on Valley Rd (near the World of Birds).
Michael Kokhuis
Operations Manager
HB Civil Emergency
Response Team
Tel: 021 790
2767
Cell: 082 467 9022
Fax: 021 790 3861
Security
tips
We received the following information from
Glencairn Neighbourhood Watch via the Penzance Action Group which may be useful
to members:
Dr. Rudolph Zinn of the
Some of his findings
are alarming, some are surprising - but they are all well worth taking note of.
Then make your own conclusion and beef up your security where necessary.
·
Of the almost 15 000 residential robberies committed in 2008, half
(50%) took place in
- The average age of a house robber is
between 19 and 26 years.
- An average of 30% of all house robbers
have either committed murder, or won't hesitate to commit murder.
- Only 17% of house robbers are
foreigners.
- Of all arrested robbers, 90% had no
matric or were unemployed. The 10% who had been employed, gave up their
jobs when confirming how much they could "earn" from a robbery.
- Most victims or targets are affluent
persons who openly display their wealth, e.g. expensive cars, jewellery,
up market homes.
- Much intelligence is gathered about the
target home and its residents by means of inside information supplied by
domestic workers.
- Eighty percent of residential robberies
are committed with the help of information from domestic workers,
gardeners and former employees.
- The robbers will monitor the home and
movements for as long as is needed to formulate a plan of attack -
sometimes up to two weeks.
- All gangs research and monitor the
response times of armed response companies.
- Most attacks occur between 19:00 and midnight
as people are relaxed, busy cooking or watching TV, and the security
systems and beams are not activated. But robberies continue until 04:00 in
the morning.
- The biggest deterrent confirmed by
robbers themselves, are small dogs that are kept inside the home.
- Alarm systems and armed reaction
services are not considered a deterrent. Electric fences, closed-circuit
TV (CCTV) and detection beams do, however, deter robbers.
- An average of R5 000 is stolen during
each robbery.
- Surprisingly, victims of house robberies
are only seriously injured in 2% of all incidents.
- Only 35% of robbers stole for basic
needs (hunger, poverty), while 65% enjoyed the money and spent it on
clothes, cars, etc.
- The average robber commits 103 robberies
over seven years before being caught.
- A staggering 97% of all robbers are
armed and on average there are four members in an armed robbery gang.
- Most attackers' homes or bases are a 10
to 30 minute drive from the target address.
- Women are more often tortured or hurt
during house robberies.
- The conviction rate for house robberies
in
While these statistics
and facts may be disturbing, even alarming, UASA trusts that it may sharpen the
vigilance of each member. If you have safety measures at your home, ensure that
they are in place. Test your security equipment regularly... never be
complacent and think that it only happens to other people.
It is in your own best
interest rather to be safe than sorry!
Neighbourhood Watch needs YOU!
Join the thousands of Hout Bay
Neighbourhood Watch members who are contributing in various ways to controlling
crime in the valley.
Please
call Keith Fawcett on 021-790 6930 or 083 293 6457 or visit
www.houtbaywatch.com. Email hbnwadmin@houtbaywatch.com.
Six degrees of separation
Our newsletter and website, www.houtbay.org.za continue to remind us of the power of networks and communication. Richard Timms, Chairman of the HB & L ECG and Heritage Trust, was reunited with a cousin he lost touch with about 30 years ago. They tracked down Richard through our website and we are delighted they have been able to renew contact after all these years.
Dear Hout Bay Resident,
We invite you to join the
Resident’s Association by sending an email to rahb@houtbay.org.za and we can send you details re
membership and alert you to some of the important issues that might affect you
as a resident of Hout
Bay
You might also want to use your
skill to help the Association operate and participate in community affairs
MEMBERSHIP
(R50 per couple, R30 per individual)
Forms from Chairperson or
Library. Association’s Banking Details:
FNB,
Subscriptions may be paid electronically (please use
your full name as a reference on the payment – to ensure that we correctly credit
your membership as this information appears on our Bank Statement
If you prefer, payment may also
be dropped into our wooden box at the Library (next to the Hall doors) or
posted to our Post Office Box: 27031
Len
Swimmer
Chairperson,
Residents’ Assoc of
Tel:
790-0268, Email: lens@telkomsa.net