Time for action.. Either do this or loose out for ever!

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.

public rights in terms of the Integrated Coastal managment act

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

When discussing the 4x4 ban and its negative implications for the Elephant Coast Tourism Industry I am often confronted with the question "what right do you have to challenge the 4x4 ban?"

We need to confirm these negative implications, and I feel the best way to do that is to reference an occasional paper issued by KZN Tourism in 2004  where KZN tourism alleges that more than 20 000, thats right "TWENTY THOUSAND" people lost their jobs as the result of the knock on impacts of the 4x4 ban.

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

Next we need to do an insitu evaluation of the folks who lost their economic opportunities, and what they can do to mitigate their situation.  The vast majority of the 20 000 plus people who become indigent due to the knock on impacts of the 4x4 ban come from the local indigenous Zulu / Tsonga people who relied a great deal on the tourism trade associated with recreational use of the Elephant Coast beaches. Many within this sector were associated with the arts and crafts industry, in one of the following areas:
a) collection and gathering of relevant raw materials for the manufacture and distribution of local arts and crafts industry
b) the actual manufacture of the arts and crafts
c) sales and distribution of locally produced arts and crafts

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

The next sector where there were big losses is those who provided tourism services and labor to the tourism sector.  Here we are talking of :
a) waiters, and other staff  at restaurants
b) maids and cleaning crews at lodges,B+B's , self catering establishments, camp sites,  hotels and guest houses
c) Gilly's, boat crews,  divers assistants, Tour guides,  drivers, gardeners and other official laborers
d) shop assistants, petrol attendants, front end staff, and managers of tourism businesses.

So you may ask how did the 4x4 ban cause these losses? and you would have a very valid question that is easily explained, though the explanation is complex, and has many strangely related issues. Tthe basics is that those who used to come along with the fisher folk for an outing  suddenly were asked to walk great distances to preferred fishing spots, and they rebelled against this idea, as they were along for the experience, and were not into the serious walking issue that they were suddenly confronted with.

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

Simple solution, these tourists who were just along for he ride suddenly disappeared off of the Elephant Coast Tourism industry's radar, along with their vast spending power as tourists or weekenders . This did not just impact on one or two areas, but was wide spread over the entire South African coastline.  Some areas were affected more than others, but I can only speak for the Elephant Coast, as I lived in the town of Mtubatuba during this time period where the Elephant Coast Tourism Industry had a very serious collapse, with the resort of Mapelane allegedly loosing more than 95 % of their annual turnover.

These statistics can easily be confirmed by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) as  they are the legal successors of the GSLWPA (Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park Authority) who is the South African Government body appointed to manage the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Park World Heritage Site which includes the Elephant Coast of KZN south Africa within the Umkhanyakude district Municipality.

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

Exactly how many would be recreational beach users stopped visiting the Elephant Coast is still a mystery, even after there were numerous government studies done, which were submitted to parliament, but never discussed at local municipality level, as well as the many PPP (Public Participation Process) meetings for the IWPA IMP (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority Integrated Management Plan) and the IWPA submissions in terms of ROD a25/7/8/3/2/4 or the 4x4 ban in both sections A (6) as well as B (6) which would need to be conducted in terms of the National Environmental Management Act  (NEMA)  and associated legislation.

So we have established that in our opinion the 4x4 ban has caused a serious and very negative economic impact within the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa. The exact size of these losses has never been discussed within the Mtubatuba local municipality during any of their annual reviews of the Mtubatuba Local Municipality Integrated Development Plan Public Representatives Forum meetings, nor at any of the WPA IMP PPP meetings.

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

What to do now?

Firsts we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

next we need to attend the Mtubatuba IDP PRF meetings and present this petition along with some requests for inclusion of issues into the Mtubatuba Local Municipality IDP.

During the last few weeks starting in late October 2013 many people have been asking me to get involved in these issues once more, and I really would love to go fishing along the Elephant Coast of KZN in comfort and style, so I have opted to take up the issue as requested.

So from Jan 2014 you will start seeing  and hearing more about the ARBU and its related efforts to have the Elephant Coast tourism issues addressed at the correct political levels including the local municipality IDP and its subsequent elevation to the provincial legislature then the national legislature.

we need some moral support from the public  see http://bit.ly/4x4ban-petition

ARBU seeks a mandate - south coast live

The ARBU or Association of recreational Beach Users needs a public mandate and is thus advertising all over the place requesting the public to take a look at our mandate request

The South Coast of KZN  South Africa has a marketing platform at http://southcoastlive.co.za and the ARBU has opted to use this platform, amongst many others.

You can see our social request for your mandate  here

to read the latest request by the minister for comment on the 4x4 ban issue see this page

This new draft legislation is not that vastly different from the current legislation, and it still has no clauses for public access to the Elephant Coast beaches, and no mention is made of the vast job losses associated with this legislation as in this report by KZN Tourism

These issues are very complicated and the government is trying to side step many thorny issues which include

• lost economic opportunities  as a result of the 4x4 ban
• environmental impacts of the 4x4 ban on the IWP (iSimangaliso Wetland Park)
• the tourism impact of the 4x4 ban on the domestic tourism market of the Elephant Coast
• non compliance of the ICMA by the minister of Environmental affairs
• non compliance of the ICMA by the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority)
• Inability of the local municipalities within Umkhanyakude district municipality to comply with the ICMA as a result of the non co-operation of the IWPA (iSimangaliso wetland Park)

ICMA = Integrated Coastal Management Act   act no 24 vof 2008

We will be looking a bit deeper into these matters and be posting more indepth posts soon.  in the mean time we still need your mandate

If you do decide to sign our mandate with AVAAZ.ORG thrn please also ask others to do the same. the more signatures we get the better the influence your mandate will have when we need to use it at public meetings and in our court applications.

many thanx for reading, please comment and ask others to visit our pages to.

The ARBU needs a mandate to take up the 4x4 ban issue

The association of recreational beach  users ( #ARBU)  has been around for some time, but has never really got popular with the masses because we were seen as "ECO TERRORISTS" who wanted to invade the beaches of the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa and destroy all the sand dunes by driving where no person should.

help us fix the problem : view our petition and then decide

It is just not true that our members are "ECO TERRORISTS" , and we as responsible naturalists and environmentalists  understand that our beaches need protection from hooligans and irresponsible people. Unfortunately there are some who just do not understand reason, or are not connected with the true spirit of conservation through sustainable utilization.

Most of the people who have supported the closure of all beaches to reasonable motor vehicle access are city dwellers who have no perception of the vast open spaces of the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa, nor the huge tourism potential of this region. The closure of the Elephant Coast beaches has resulted in Huge job losses in the region of 20 000 (twenty thousand) way back in 2004, as outlined in a report by KZN Tourism found here 

These job losses associated with the decline in domestic tourism numbers along the Elephant Coast have put an awful lot more pressure on the environment, as the rural people affected by these job losses are now more reliant on the environment to supply their daily needs, and so use more local natural resources in inappropriate ways to feed their families and pay their daily bills. These impacts are very extreme in some areas where the rural people involved in the manufacture and sales of arts and crafts to the domestic tourism industry have congregated due to the tourism flow patterns which have been established over time.

For us as the management of the Association of Recreational beach users to take up the fight and rectify these issues we need the support of the general public.  To get the support of the public we have established this blog, a web site at http://arbu.info4u.co.za and some social media profiles. 

These issues are not just about physical driving on beaches with 4x4 vehicles, but about access to remote areas in a sustainable manner to benefit the largest portion of the South African public, and the sustainable tourism that is associated with the use of the Elephant Coast beaches tourism potential as a natural resource as well.

The 4x4 ban put a stop to this use of the Elephant Coast beaches as a natural tourism resource, and the consequences are very evident with the large drop in domestic tourism numbers and the associated job losses which the 4x4 ban has caused.

Please view our petition and consider signing it

visit our web site at http://arbu.info4u.co.za

see our social media links at social.me/arbu

 

The purpose of the ARBU

The purpose of the ARBU  or Association of Recreational Beach users is to bring together like minded people, and gather public support to challenge the 4x4 ban and all subsequent legislation which has a negative impact on the coastal Environment within the Elephant Coast of KZN south Africa.

History has clearly shown us the very negative impact of the closure of the Elephant Coast beaches to the regional economy of the Umkhanyakude district Municipality, with KZN Tourism estimating 20 000 (twenty Thousand) plus job losses and large scale economic losses associated with this legislation  as in their occasional paper no 20 which was published and circulated within the KZN tourism web site.

The comment period for the new draft legislation closed on Sunday 31 March 2013 and our comment that we emailed to the advertised email address did not elicit a response of any kind, not even an acknowledgement of receipt.

The Association of recreational beach users has a social media profile that can be found here

The ARBU has a web presence and this blog is in place to boost that web presence and help the management of the ARBU to gain support from the people on the ground, and a mandate from our supporter base to take the 4x4 ban issue up at the political level.

To contribute to this blog or our collective efforts to have the 4x4 ban issue addressed in a manner that best suits the majority become a supporter and register here or to offer us your personal mandate to take up the issue on your behalf here 

Looking forward to keeping you informed and  working with you and your friends to solve the many thorny issues of recreational beach access to the Elephant Coast beaches.

Please share and advise others of our need for public support to address the 4x4 ban issue.