BACK GROUND
The 4x4 ban or the closure of the all
beaches within the coastal zones of South Africa to reasonable motor
vehicle access in terms of legislation associated with the NEMA
(National Environmental Management Act) has had a very negative impact
on domestic tourism along the entire coastal belt of South Africa.
Some
areas have had bigger losses than others, and the rural areas along the
entire Coastline of South Africa have been in the forefront of these
very substantial impacts with many thousands of economic opportunities
(read jobs) being shed due to exceptionally low domestic tourism
numbers along the South African coastal belt.
This blog is in place to discuss these losses and an action
plan to restore a portion of these lost economic opportunities by
establishing some recreational tourism access to the remote beaches of
the the Elephant cost of KZN South Africa through following the
procedures laid out in the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) and
the
MSA (Municipal Systems Act) as well as the
NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) and associated legislation, including
the ROD (Record of decision) which was taken to close the elephant Coast beaches to reasonable recreational vehicle access.
This
is a very tall order, and the last time I got involved in this, I had
extreme issues in getting the public to attend mandated meetings such as
PPP (Public Participation Process)
meetings and local municipality Integrated development plan Public
Representative Forum meetings. I ended up loosing the battle, and gave
up hope of ever gaining reasonable motor vehicle access to my favourite
recreation fishing grounds along the elephant coast of KZN South Africa.
Since
December 2013 I have been recieving emails and phone calls asking me
to take up this issue again. I have been tempted, and refused quite a
few times, but the call of those great fishing spots, that can only be
reached by driving down the beach or walking more than 8 Km along the
beach is just too great. I miss those fishing trips, and would simply
love to go there again, with my friends.
The
reaction of the south African public to the 4x4 ban came as a surprise
to many, and the fact that the South African population shunned the
remote beaches of South Africa had many unwanted and surprisingly
negative impacts, to both the financial and natural environments. I
will be talking about the Elephant Coast here because that is the area
where I have personal experience, but other rural coastal areas have the
same and similar issues with both the natural environment and the
socio-economic environments.
The socio-economic effects
are easily seen, and many of those who relied on the domestic tourism
market for their income are now living off the fat of the land, and
causing environmental degradation within the entire Umkhanyakude
district Municipality, as the friends, family and colleges of those who
come to the Elephant Coast for their fishing holiday are now putting up
great resistance to the idea of walking great distances down the
beaches, and have thus forced a change in coastal tourism dynamics.
These very serious drops in the domestic tourism numbers are a very large concern to us as the Association Of Recreational beach users, as this impacts on our members coastal experiences. This mass stay away has caused manybusinesses within the
DOMESTIC TOURISM MARKET to
close up shop, and those that remained have not been doing very well at
all, with many becoming bankrupt and their employees finding them selves destitute.
It has been alleged
that the camp sites at Mapelane in the extreme South East corner of the
iSimangaliso Wetland Park lost more than 90 % of their annual turn over,
and the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has refused to
discuss this at the Mtubatuba Local Municipality Integrated Development
Plan Public Representatives Forum meetings as well as at Mandated PPP
(Public Participation Process) meetings in terms of the 4x4 ban and
associated laws and legislation.
The laws and legislation have been written in a people friendly way, and the South African Constitution gives us the
rights in chapter 2, section 24,
but the people need to take up the issue and attend the mandated
meetings in sufficient numbers to force the issue at local municipality IDP level, where these matters are supposed to be addressed in terms of various different laws and associated legislation.
Those who
are not following their public mandates in terms of the various acts and
associated legislation must either be removed from office or forced fix the
issues according to the laws in place.
I am once again taking up the issue, and request your help in the form of a mandate.
click this link to see our petition and then if you agree, give us your mandate by signing the petition.
