Hout and About
August
2010
The publication of the Residents’ Association of Hout Bay
rahb@houtbay.org.za
www.houtbay.org.za
|
In this issue: |
|
Len’s
Lines: A message from the Chairperson |
|
Violent crime in Valley Road |
|
Hout Bay Joint Security Association to sign up
2000 homes |
|
Tips for handling
crime scenes |
|
The
development of Imizamo Yethu |
|
What
prospects for |
|
Mark Wiley MPP on
the issue of repeated water pipe breaks |
|
Clifford Nogwavu (SANCO) on the need for additional schools |
|
‘Green Scorpions’ confront owners who illegally extend land |
|
New toll road deal nearly ready |
|
Drowning in our
own waste |
|
Encroachment on
World heritage site? |
|
To join the
Residents’ Association |
Len’s
Lines
A
message from the Chairperson of the Residents’ Association of
The primary function of the Residents
Association is to preserve and enhance the unique character and natural beauty
of Hout Bay, and, on behalf of our members, to ensure that the development of
our neighbourhood is carried out in a manner that is sensitive to the
environment, in accordance with the law and the rules of natural justice, and
promotes the greater good of all our residents.
Inevitably, in carrying out the mandate of our
members, members of the Executive Committee interact with the authorities
responsible for governing our City and Province, as well as a range of other
Civic bodies and persons who have some collective or personal vested interest
in
Where, however, conflict occurs – either by
virtue of differing objectives, or more frequently, the simple ineptitude or
indifference of the authorities – the Association is bound to use all the means
at its disposal to challenge the authorities, often through the public
media. Our very own Hout & About
is just one such channel for bringing to the attention of concerned citizens
the issues that we believe to be worthy of public scrutiny and support, with
the result that the publication may often appear to be simply a repository of
‘bad’ news.
Against that background it is always a
pleasure to report on our successes – those instances where the Association is
able to intervene in order to put right some wrong and where the authorities
act promptly and efficiently in carrying out their duties. Just one such example concerns the Roads and
Stormwater Department, as per the following story.
On 13 July Doug Else wrote to me saying: “I live in Laurentia way
and about 4 weeks ago a car drove over one of our lamp posts, bollards and the
stop sign at the end of Laurentia way - who could I speak to get this repaired?”. On 18 July I forwarded the email to Henry du
Plessis, the Director of Roads and Storm Water in the City. He replied the following day to say that he
would have his District Manager investigate the problem. And sure enough, the lamp post and stop sign
was replaced that very same day and an email received from Robert Hector to say
that the bollards would receive immediate attention!
Well done and thank you, Henry du Plessis and Robert Hector for the
speedy and courteous service, which is surely an example to all other
Provincial and City Departments!
As always, I hope you will enjoy this issue of Hout & About and look forward to receiving any comments you
might have (some of which may be printed in a future issue).
Regards
Len
Swimmer
Chairperson,
Residents Association of
Tel: 021 790 0268;
Email: lens@telkomsa.net
Violent crime in Valley Road
The owners of the
Frith Stables in
They report as
follows: “A young couple, who recently bought a small holding on
Valley Rd, were brutally traumatised and attacked with an axe by two intruders on
the evening of 21 July In the ensuing attack, their dog - a Dalmatian -
attacked the intruders; he was beaten and has been missing since the incident
(subsequently found). Within an hour of this incident, a woman was attacked in
Llandudno and all security, SAPS and NW had to divide to cover both incidents. We need to stand together as a community, to
combat the rising incidence of violent crime in the
The Hout Bay Joint
Security Association (JSA) was launched in the latter part of 2009 and in a
relatively short period of time has achieved a significant reduction in crime
in the
The JSA consists of
a group of concerned citizens who have volunteered to sign up members, collect
monthly fees of R100 per household, and oversee the activities of the Mountain
Men. The Mountain Men for their part
work closely with the armed response companies, the police, the Neighbourhood
Watch and other emergency and security services operating in
Following the
success in the Upper Valley, the JSA’s “Magic 2010” campaign is focused on
signing up 2000 households in the wider Hout Bay area in order to ‘beef up’ the
current Mountain Men team. In
particular, the campaign aims to fund six two-man teams operating on a 24/7/365
basis, deploy a tracked dog unit to crime scenes, and provide a dedicated
management team, specialist training and dedicated vehicles.
For further
information, visit the JSA website on www.hbjsa.co.za
Tips for handling crime scenes
The Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch advises as follows:
·
Make a note of the following cell phone numbers for
the two Sector vans working the North and South Sectors, as follows: N 082 411 2375 and S 082 411 2352. When speaking directly to SAPF either
use these cell numbers or their landline 021 791 8660.
·
The SAPF will need a brief and quick description of
the incident, the location, your name and contact number and the detail of the
service you require (e.g. ambulance, fire, search and rescue, SAPF, etc.).
·
If the incident is a robbery at home, try not to walk
around, especially in the garden area. Inside
the home remember fingerprints may need to be taken, for example of windows or
doors etc. so do not clean up before the SAPF arrives.
·
Remember that another call, after yours to SAPF, may
take priority, and that you may therefore have to wait until they are free
before they can attend to your call.
·
If an incident occurred while you were out and you
return to find something amiss please report it to SAPF. If you do not report
the matter then a docket will not be opened by SAPF. If no docket is opened, effectively no crime has
been committed. Also bear in mind that
in most instances your insurance company will require a case/docket number if
you are making a claim and you can only get that if you have reported the
incident to SAPF.
The development of Imizamo Yethu
An edition of Hout & About
would hardly be complete without some reference to the problems associated with
our informal settlements, the efforts of various bodies to address these
problems and the apparent lack of political courage on the part of the
authorities to provide appropriate support, resulting in endless delays in
actually getting anything done.
In this article we provide extracts from a letter of the Hout Bay and
Llandudno Environment Conservation Group (ECG) to the Minister of Local
Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (the “Department”)
of 26 May. The letter was a further
response to the City of Cape Town Municipality’s own application to the
Department for the development of Imizamo Yethu, submitted on 27 January 2010.
Please note that the Residents’ Association is a member of the ECG,
together with
“Since the Municipality submitted its Application
to the Department for the development of Imizamo Yethu (IY), our community
organisations have been expecting that the required surveys and further
investigations would have been undertaken and revised plans prepared by the
Planning Authorities. We have been
waiting for an opportunity to scrutinise the revised plans. Instead we see that the Approval letter issued
by the Department merely reflects the issues outlined in the Application and
that none of the required surveys and investigations has yet been done. Thus a further 3 months have been lost in
proceeding with this development.
The quickest and most effective way to proceed with
this IY development will be for the Municipality to undertake the required
surveys and investigations, prepare revised plans and submit a new
Application. This would also avoid any
potential legal challenge to the original Application and the resultant
Approvals...
The ECG urges that the problems [as outlined in the
ECG letter] be resolved by undertaking the required surveys and investigations
as matters of urgency, so that revised plans can be prepared and a new
Application submitted by the Municipality to the Competent Authority for
approval.
The Department’s Approval letter emphasises that it
is essential for the Municipality to enforce control measures with regard to
the development of informal dwellings and the size of the population of IY, to
ensure that the whole township suburb can develop in a positive manner and
provide good living conditions for its residents.
It is
exactly this concern which motivates the member organisations of the ECG. The
over-riding concern is that the present size of the population greatly exceeds
the capacity of the suburb area to provide a reasonable standard of housing and
good living conditions. There will have
to be a measure of relocation. The ECG urges that this difficult problem must
be addressed urgently by the Municipality in consultation with the Department
before the further development of IY proceeds in order to avoid the creation of
unrealisable expectations and the problems these will inevitably cause.”
The somewhat dismissive response of the City to this letter (23 July) indicates
that: "The
City is proceeding with the implementation of the Development of Imizamo Yethu
in accordance with the approvals granted and in compliance with the conditions
imposed." The ECG is now proceeding to seek ways of requiring
the City and Provincial authorities actively to address and resolve the
outstanding problems.
What prospects for
As the facilities at the
At the time of
publication, the Residents’ Association had yet to obtain a copy of this
report. In bringing the issue to the
attention of Ms. Shinn, however, Hout Bay Resident Chris Hudson commented as
follows:
“You expressed interest in what I had to say about
the tragic state into which the
In an attempt to deal with some of the elements in
late 2006 the MCM initiated a survey of not only
All well & good but that is where the project
ground to a halt. It was completed on time in April 2008 but the results were
not released. We did hear unofficially, from someone high up in the consultant
team, that because the report stated that there was no point in taking any
steps to unlock the socio-economic value of the harbours until the shortcomings
in the MCM were corrected, it was buried.
That decision is most unfortunate because nothing
has been done to improve the management of the
In a nutshell: Why haven’t the
recommendations of the Fishing Harbour Feasibility study, both short & long
term, been implemented? The recommendations accord closely with the views
of civil society as we know them, particularly the Hout Bay Harbour Users Committee,
which has been calling for effective management in the Hout Bay harbour for
many years, to eliminate the daily waste through unchecked criminal activities
and lack of maintenance of the harbour fabric; to a large extent due to the
split responsibility for harbour affairs between the National Department of
Public Works and the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism.
What has the Inter-departmental Harbour Steering Committee been doing about the
matter since early 2009?”
Mark Wiley MPP on the issue of repeated water pipe
breaks
Provincial MP Mark Wiley has urgently raised the matter of repeated
water pipe breaks in
“There has been another pipe burst in
“I have visited the site on several occasions in the last month and can
confirm that the residents, who pay substantial rates, are very irate – and
justifiably so.
“I am concerned that this matter is not being taken seriously enough by
the officials. Is any record being kept of the frequency of the bursts and are
any measures to mitigate the occurances being taken?
I am requesting an on-site meeting with yourself and the appropriate
officials at your earliest convenience to get a report on the current status
and what measures need to be taken to avoid any further damages.”
Clifford Nogwavu (SANCO) on the need for schools in
Hout Bay
The following extract is from a letter from Clifford Nogwavu,
Chairperson of the
“It is now generally agreed by all community organisations in
“It is certain and is accepted by virtually all interested persons that
additional schools in
“There is also no question that an additional state High School is
urgently required in
‘Green scorpions’ confront owners who illegally
extend land
Surprised Melkbosstrand seafront owners have been taken to task by the
Green Scorpions – the City’s environmental management inspectors – for
allegedly infringing environmental regulations by illegally extending the
footprint of their properties into the proclaimed public open space on the
adjoining coastal dunes. Inspections are part of a process of restoring and
rehabilitating public open spaces, that could see transgresors fined by up to
R5million.
The actions of the Green Scorpions provide hope to residents of
New toll road deal nearly ready
According to the Provincial Government, negotiations for a revised
contract to operate the Chapman’s Peak toll road are nearing completion. Government officials have, however, refused
to provide any details of the negotiations with toll road operator Entilini,
including the alleged and controversial move to drop the free day passes from
Many
Drowning in our own waste
In the July issue of Hout &
About, Residents’ Association Chairperson Len Swimmer commented on the
issue of untreated raw sewage being pumped directly into the sea from the Hout
Bay Sewage treatment plant, and posed the question: should we not be looking at
the possibilities of desalination rather than continuing to pollute the very
water that we might one day need to survive?
GCTCA EXCO member Gavin Smith has responded as follows: “Nice
take on the sewage plant. It's reported that more than 80% of
Encroachment on
World heritage site?
An aerial view of Imizamo Yethu. The shaded area represents the illegal
settlement of Donske Yatke and clearly shows the encroachment on the
To
join the Residents Association:
Contact us via
email on rahb@houtbay.org.za
Membership forms
available from Chairperson (see above) or Hout Bay Library
Membership fee: R50
per couple; R30 per individual
Banking details for
payment of subscriptions:
(Payment may be
made electronically or manually via our wooden box at the Library or by post at
Post Office Box 27031,
The Residents’ Association acknowledges, with thanks,
the support of Patrick Maingard, Hout Bay Franchise Principal of Pam Golding
Properties (Pty) Ltd
