Hout and About
News
from Residents’ Association of
rahb@houtbay.org.za
www.houtbay.org.za
November
2009
Beach Club Victory!
After
a year of waiting, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development
Planning in a letter dated 5th October finally ruled that the Beach
club zoning from “Amenity” purposes to “Special Residential, Commercial
Private” has lapsed on certain subdivided portions of Erf 1530.
With
the lapse in land use rights in terms of LUPO, the NEMA EIA regulations will
now also be applicable. Some of the regulations that now apply include:
- No Construction
within 100 metres inland of the high water mark
- No dredging
and excavation of ground exceeding 5 cubic metres from a river or wetland
- No removal
of more than 10 sq m of indigenous vegetation within a distance of 100
metres of the high water mark
The
Association is delighted that after a long hard battle, the preservation of our
beach area has been upheld. Our marine
coastline is a dynamic entity that will suffer environmental and aesthetic
degradation if such hard developments are permitted and we are pleased that the
NEMA regulations have been correctly enforced.
Many
thanks to those who have worked hard to bring this issue to the attention of
the authorities. We also very much appreciate the efforts of officials
(in both local and provincial government) who are striving to put into action
the new legislation designed to protect the coastal zone and thus also
properties to the lee of it. Listening to Gregg Oelofse explain the
proposed ‘Development Edges Policy’ (with respect to the ‘coastal edge’) at a
recent city workshop was most enlightening.
How
low can you go?
The
construction of the Breakers has been halted temporarily due to building height
violations.
William
Carter acting Head of Building Survey South Peninsula Administration responded
to Len Swimmer last month regarding the height determinations at The Breakers:
“The
issues are being addressed. The roof was changed from what was originally
approved. This has resulted in it exceeding the height limit. A notice has been
served and I met with the architect. He is looking at it with the land
surveyor. It has been spelt out that the building as it stands will have to
lose the upper floor to each level. I am awaiting their response.”
In
addition to the building contravention, the construction of the Breakers has
caused heartbreak amongst the neighbours.
Since May this year, residents around the Breakers have been writing to
the authorities. When demolition
commenced, neighbours were not informed and they lived with the resulting dust
that permeated their apartments and resulted in them sealing windows with
masking tape. A little later insulation material came snowing down on the
complex. A few days later slate tiles
with nails attached rained down on the driveway in the wind.
Five
months later, a resident wrote to Len Swimmer “I am exhausted AGAIN to-day
having had hardly any sleep last night.
The roof sheeting blew and blew the whole of the night. Living like this
is a nightmare as you can well imagine.”
Unfortunately,
with the height contravention hold up it looks like this building site will
continue to plague residents for a little longer. One wonders why the architect, surveyor and
developer were unable to plan within the specified height restriction.
When taking the high
ground can be a hazard
The
following article by Erik Schaug appeared in the Cape Times 5 October and makes
for very interesting reading:
The recent rainy season in the
Building them on a sloping site can
cause even more serious difficulties. After all, if you build houses up on stilts,
as they do in many places in the East, seasonal flooding does not cause too
much of a problem in low-lying areas.
The Residents' Association of
In the
If you want to build a house on a
sloping site you have to level the ground, which means expensive retaining
walls or banks. Road access has to take the slope into account, which could
mean zig-zagging the road so that it doesn't get too steep. This is expensive,
as it uses up more space and, like the sites, involves retaining walls or
banks.
Water supply might need a reservoir at a
Sewers also have their difficulties on
sloping sites: sewer pipes only operate successfully if they are at an
acceptable angle, not too shallow and not too steep.
These technical problems significantly
increase the cost of housing for the poor on sloping sites, which means that
fewer poor people can get housing.
Every so often Imizamo Yethu (IY) finds
itself in the news. The problem is ongoing slow-motion environmental disasters.
And the primary physical cause behind them is the steeply sloping mountainside
that IY is built upon.
The council's latest development scheme
for the lower slopes of Imizamo Yethu includes 1 100 two- and three-storey
flats. The geotechnical survey for the area revealed that there was a lot of
unstable detritus to a depth of 3m, and a lot of clay - this is in addition to
the problems of sloping ground.
This means that the foundations will
have to be special: expensive piles would need to be driven, and structural
ground beams constructed, as well as the retaining walls or banks for the
necessary leveling.
Professional estimates of the cost of
building these flats make for startling reading. Each flat would be only 40m2,
and its construction would be very basic: cement blocks, vinyl floors, steel
windows. The cost of each, taking into account the cost of site preparation,
would be in the order of R250 000.
That's why only the rich can afford to
build on sloping sites. One might argue that the poor should not be
discriminated against, but there is a finite amount of money available for
their housing.
Spending a quarter of a million rands on
each dwelling for the poor on a sloping site means that the poor elsewhere will
not get houses until much later.
This is contrary to the principle of
"the greatest good for the greatest number".
At the highest point of Imizamo Yethu is
a large cluster of about 1 500 shacks, known as Dontse Yakhe.
A few years ago it was discovered that
some residents had been pouring their sewage into what they thought was a
sewer; only it turned out to be a stormwater drain.
Others in Dontse Yakhe had forgone this
procedure, and used a nearby tract of the mountainside as a huge public toilet.
Whenever it rained heavily, this sewage poured down through peoples' properties
- including other residents of IY - en route to the
The consequences were dire. In 2006 Dr
Justin O'Riain, together with
Because Dontse Yakhe is so high up,
there is not enough water pressure available to provide proper toilets, so Ward
councilor Marga Haywood arranged for over a thousand chemical cartridge toilets
to be delivered to the residents free of charge.
Each household would receive a toilet
plus two cartridges; every two weeks council workers would collect the full
cartridge and replace it with a new one.
After about a month the council workers
reported that only about 50 cartridges had been exchanged. It turned out that
most of the residents of Dontse Yakhe are Ovambos, and they said that using
toilets, chemical or waterborne, was against their culture and traditions, and
that they would therefore continue to use the nearby mountainside for their
ablutions.
In the latest proposal for the
development of Imizamo Yethu, the council has come up with a scheme to deal
with this. A detention pond would be constructed on the lower slopes, near the
Detention ponds normally serve to retain
the large amount of water which accumulates in an area whenever there's a lot
of rain. It is then gradually discharged into the stormwater disposal system.
But this would be a detention pond with
a difference: on the drawings it is identified as a "dual purpose
detention pond (stormwater cleansing)".
What is meant by this is that it would
also deal with the informal sewage problem of Imizamo Yethu. During the first
heavy rains of winter, when summer's accumulation of human faeces washes down
from the upper slopes, it would be collected in the pond as a "first
flush", and discharged into the sewage system. Subsequent "flushes",
bearing a reduced amount of faeces, would be discharged into the
The idea of retention ponds being used
for the disposal of human faeces is not only disquieting, it is against
building regulations. The
Discharge) states:
"(1) No person shall on any site
cause or permit any sewage to enter -
(a) any street, stormwater drain,
stormwater sewer or excavated or constructed watercourse; or
"(b) subject to the Water Act, 1956
(Act No 54 of 1956), any river, stream or natural watercourse whether
ordinarily dry or otherwise.
"(2) No person shall cause or
permit stormwater to enter any drainage installation on any site."
So the idea of collecting the
"first flush" of faeces-laden stormwater of the rainy season in a
detention pond and then discharging it into the sewer system would be a
contravention of the regulations.
The subsequent collection of stormwater
from the same source later in the rainy season and discharging it into the
stormwater system (which discharges into the
This might raise an interesting legal
issue. The squatters who occupy Dontse Yakhe are doing so illegally. If the
council were to go ahead with their plan to accommodate the traditions and
culture of Ovambos in contravention of the National Building Regulations, it
might be argued that they were giving tacit permission to stay - and continue
using the slopes of the mountain as a mega public toilet.
The slope of the land in IY, combined
with gravity, hydraulics and unacceptable human behaviour, is causing an
environmental disaster. It should be stopped.
Which is what the
Chairman Len Swimmer states that the
residents of Dontse Yakhe are there illegally, as the area they occupy is
outside the demarcated area of Imizamo Yethu.
In a letter sent to the City of Cape
Town and the Provincial Administration of the Western Cape the association
says: "We contend that this land is not intended to be used as an informal
settlement, and as owners of the unlawfully occupied land, we urgently request
you to comply with the zoning scheme of the Land Use Planning Ordinance and
remove the informal settlers off your land."
Swimmer attributes the lack of progress
so far to "inaction by senior City officials and their consultants who
appear to have been either hamstrung by lack of political will or unwillingness
in themselves to act firmly".
Goodman Ngwangwa, chairman of the
Sinethemba Civic Association in Imizamo Yethu, expresses the plight of those
who live below Dontse
Yakhe:
"The sewerage and drain water from
Donste Yakhe pours down our streets and makes us sick.
"We agreed that we would not have
any new informal settlements, but Donste Yakhe is exactly like a new informal
settlement. Nothing is being done about the difficulties caused by so many
people living without services that affect us and people living in Hughenden
and in
He goes on to say: "We want and
need progress in Imizamo Yethu badly. We do not want to hold up the
development, but the behaviour of the officials - their neglect of us, the way
they ignore our Councillor and Ward Forum and the way they always find reasons
for not doing something instead of using their skills for which they were
employed to solve problems - makes us distrustful".
If the council and the province don't
respond satisfactorily, the Residents' Association intends to take the matter
to the high court, alleging contravention of the National Environment
Management Act and of the Land Use Planning Ordinance.
The next step…Dontse
Yakhe
The Association’s submission to the City regarding the
illegal shack development of erven 2848 (known as Dontse Yakhe) and 1509 (zoned
Local Authority and Single Residential, respectively) received the following response
from the Plumstead Office:
The issue of informal
illegal occupation of municipal and state owned land is a complex developmental
issue that needs to be addressed from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This serving of notices to the illegal
occupiers in terms of the LUPO no 15 of 1985 will not resolve the issue as
other legal considerations, for instance, the inter-governmental Relations
Framework Act 2005 need to be taken into consideration.
It should also be noted that
the illegal occupiers have rights in terms of the Constitution and there is a
substantial body of case law that would appear to support their position. Given the above I have referred your
complaint to my Director Cheryl Walters for her to take up with our Executive
Director: Strategy and Planning for further consideration.
The
Association still awaits the response of the Executive Director.
Llandudno facilities
a crying shame
Sue Gutsche, Secretary of Llandudno Surf Life Saving
Club has written to the City in desperation regarding the atrocious state of
beach access and toilets at Llandudno.
“I have lived here for 32 years and have never seen
the access to the beach or the toilets (or lack thereof) in such a sad state of
repair. I certainly would never come back to Llandudno beach, or in fact,
The path down to the beach, (next to the toilets) was
worked on last year but the work has been left incomplete and the bottom 4
steps are covered in slimy water seepage.
The path in the middle of the beach is being eroded away. This path used
to receive an annual upgrade and vegetation gets cut back, but nothing has been
done.
The toilets are usually out of order, leaking, and
filthy dirty or locked. There used to be a lady who used to keep the toilets
cleaned and in order two or three years ago but she is longer around.
We look forward to a response from the City and an
improvement to our beach services and maintenance
New illegal
structures in IY
Councillor
Haywood has written to the authorities regarding a sudden burst of illegal
building construction on council land, especially on pavements and public open
space. Pedestrians are forced to walk in
the busy overcrowded streets and a number of containers have been placed across
pavements and on the interdicted Forestry Station land.
The
area is meant to be monitored 7 days a week, but the illegal structure patrol
team has been reduced from 5 to 2 and the 5 law enforcement officers who used
to accompany them have been taken away completely.
“This is obviously completely
inadequate and it appears that the Hout Bay community is once again left
completely unprotected by the City, yet the City is the owner of the
property causing the untenable situation and lawlessness in the first place.”
A new place to stay?
Many
of you know Mr and Mrs Banda, a Zimbabwean couple living and working here in
Jenni
and Bill Fleetwood offered their holiday flat to the Banda’s rent free until
December this year after Renia Banda contracted TB under terrible living
conditions in an IY shack.
Dillion
plans on starting a poetry club in
Unfortunately,
the end of November is marching on fast and efforts to find somewhere for them
to move to have not produced the results we had hoped for.
Do
you, or your friends, or your families, know of or have, suitable accommodation
for this wonderful couple? A cottage perhaps or a holiday flat? They are
planning on bringing their 2 little girls back to SA with them after Xmas, as
the schooling in Zim is virtually non-existent and they are desperate for their
children to receive some education. I appeal to you to put your minds and
hearts to work and think of how we can help these friends. Dillion is only an asset
to the
Please
contact Dwyn Griesel B.Mus Jazz Studies UCT 1992 Executive Director KRONENDAL
MUSIC ACADEMY OF HOUT BAY "Igniting the Spirit"
A
Non-Profit Music Academy integrating communities
NPO#:
060-215
Tel:
+27 82 3314062
Library coffee
shop
If
you haven’t tasted Zoe Busby’s quiche, you are missing out on something special
in
Good
news! The rumours about the possible closure of our garden refuse facility have
turned out to be just that … rumours. We have received written confirmation
from the City Solid Waste Department that the discussions are in fact about the
Ladies Mile facility.
Seven Personal Safety
Tips
1. The elbow is the strongest point on your
body. If you are close enough to use it, do!
2. If
a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse toss it away from you....Chances are
that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go
for the wallet/purse.
3.
If you are ever thrown into the boot of a car, kick out the back tail lights
and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.
4.
If someone is in the car with a gun to your head do not drive off. Instead gun
the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save
you.
5. A
few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot: Be aware, look around
you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat. If
you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Look
at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle.
6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the
stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot.
7.
If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The
predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then, it
most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, preferably in a zig -zag pattern!
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