What is the annual cost of implementing the 4x4 ban within the Elepehant Coast ?

Sun rise on the beach

There is so much documentation out there discussing the NEGATIVE ECONOMIC impacts of the 4x4 ban, but it appears that these have not been read by the folks on the ground within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland park and surrounding rural areas of Umkhanyakude district municipality.

firstly there is the OCCASIONAL PAPER 20 BY KZN TOURISM    found here Tourism KwaZulu-Natal's Occasional Research Papers and Ad Hoc Research Projects

then there are a number of documents that were live on this web site http://www.acerafrica.co.za/ which have since been removed or made unavailable to the public. Acer Africa has been the #IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authorities preferred environmental consulting company for a number of years.

The IWPA and associates have many nasty political tricks that they implement, and their PPP or Public Participation Programs are quite well disguised and often hidden from the public through disingenuous tricks and sneaky public perception management strategies.

The current situation where they (IWPA and associates) hold impromptu road blocks and search vehicles for alcoholic beverages when en-route the the local St. Lucia beaches    is also an emotional issue as most South Africans appreciate a beer with their braai.  when this is a problem then the South African Tourists tend to pack up and leave town.  

This attack on our rights to enjoy a beer with a braai is quite a big thing from a tourism perspective, as it chases the lo0cal and domestic tourist out of town.  In the past (pre 2002) this was the main stay of all tourism in St. Lucia with international visitors being very few and far between.  The IWPA decided for us that we should no longer welcome South African folks, but focus on international tourism.

If you take your time and evaluate the OCCASIONAL PAPER 20  (link above) you will soon see that more than 20 000 folks lost their economic opportunities due to the knock on impact of South African Folks no longer feeling welcome within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site.

these economic  losses are huge,  and have never been fully disclosed to the public at any PPPM or Public Participation Process Meeting.held by the IWPA.  WE will soon be challenging this, as the original ROD (Record of Decision)  clearly stipulates that this must happen.  there is supposewd to be an annual review which the minister gets.  this annual review is supposed to (at least in my mind) go through a public participation process in terms of the this ROD but we as the public are left in the dark and fed the biggest pile of hog wash in show and tell meetings that are meant to be Public Participation Process Meetings.

This will soon be a topic of discussion t the Mtubatuba Locla Municipality RDP process, and cause many red faces and lots of  political posturing.  The St. Lucia tourism folks need to brace themselves for the fall out from these political posturing moves and the public reaction that will follow.

WE as the public will soon be requesting an explanation from the new minister of tourism.... asking for the economic costs incurred to enforce the 4x4 Ban including the cost of lost tourism.

this will cause many problems and open the can of worms, spilling them on the dinner table while the guests are eating ....

We can expect some strange reactions from the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority and the Minister, as this is a big problem where the local community of the St. Lucia area ;ost more than 20 000 jobs due to government attitude. 

Which way the Mtubatuba Local municipality will react is an open question, as these are all new councilors, with none of those who were in power way back in 2000 still being in power....

Frankie2socks is in town....

There is so much documentation out there discussing the NEGATIVE ECONOMIC impacts of the 4x4 ban, but it appears that these have not been read by the folks on the ground within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland park and surrounding rural areas of Umkhanyakude district municipality.

What to do, and how to get folks on the ground, who have suffered  the losses associated with the absense of the #DOMRSTICTOURIST from the tourism mix within the #ISIMANGALISO wetland Park, involved in putting pressure on the Mtubatuba local municipality to address the issues around domrstic and local tourism.

Currently (May / June  2017 ) there have been very few local tourist (Empamgeni, Ricbay, Durban nrwcastle Vrheid ladysmithaand other nearby areas)  visiting  over weekends and this impact is being felt all thebway from the N2 to within Cape Vidal, Mapelane, Kozi Bay, St. Lucia and Sodwana bay.)


Please sign our  PETITION  requesting a public mandate to address these issues 

A report from the #IWPA discussing tourism numbers

This report needs to be in the public domain, and we as recreational beach users need to ask why these issues were never addressed.

Socio-Economic Effects of the Ban on 4x4
Beach Driving on Residents Neighbouring
the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park

SEED UNIT

REPORT BY

Gordon Fakude, Bronwyn James and Sikhumbuzo Gumede

SR SEED

#4X4BAN   #FRANKIE2SOCKS 

Well I have been inactive here for some time due to the difficulty  in some body to assist financially

That has been partiality  solved, so I am about to pick up the pave and add some really serious pressure onto the topic and take it to the next level.

I have put a GOOGLE PLUS COLLECTION in place and will be adding stuff from all over the place in there.  I would also like your feed back, so please leave comments and ask questions.
https://plus.google.com/collection/s6fzNE

#4X4BAN  #FRANKIE2SOCKS

Issues with the IWPA and their PPP (IWPAPPP)

I was in St. Lucia along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa for a few days from Wednesday 24 September 2014 to Saturday 27 September 2014 to visit the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the Elephant coast to go fishing with a few friends.  We had a great trip, even though there was no water in the town, as there is an issue with the municipal water supply in the area, which is apparently politically motivated, but we were not there long enough to get to the bottom of the issue.

Read about the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority public participation procedure meetings where this issue should be addressed and solved, but has  not been evaluated yet

WE stayed at a spot called BUDGET BACKPACKERS and they had a 5000 liter JOJO tank which they kept full,  so we had water to shower and clean, as well as flush the toilets.  We were rationed with water and the showers were only turned on for one hour in the morning, and one hour in the evening.

During our stay in St. Lucia I met up with many old friends, as I used to live in Mtubatuba which is just 25 Km to the west of St. Lucia, and many of those who I met up with asked why I had abandoned my fight with the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) around the 4x4 ban issue and the many job losses associated with this.  Well this fight caused me many economic losses and cost me an awful lot more than most will realise, and is one of the primary reasons why my business went bankrupt, along with many others who were dependent on the local tourism industry along the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa as a knock on impact of the 4x4 ban.

Unfortunately my business was very informal, and I never kept any records, at that time in my life I also had a DRINKING PROBLEM, and spent an awful lot more money in the pubs than I should have.  I used to make and sell a CHILLI PASTE that was marketed under the brand name of FRANCO's HOTSTUFF which was quite well known by locals and domestic tourists within the area.  I would never leave home without a bottle or twenty and sell these during the day and spend the money on beers or what ever took my fancy.

 At one stage I had three women working for me who cleaned chillies, peeled onions and garlic as well as ginger and other ingredients for my chilli paste.  I would spend a few days at home cooking and preparing so that these three women who did all the dirty work could be managed and understand what they needed to do for the next few days, as when I went out DRINKING,  I sometimes stayed away for a week or more, and only popped in to the house to catch a splash (TAKE A SHOWER) get some fresh supplies of chilli paste and a change of clothes.

During those years life within the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park was like living in paradise. The domestic tourists who frequented the Elephant Coast Beaches spent large sums of money on arts and crafts and in the local pubs, restaurants and shops, but this was a short lived issue, as the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) took a very dim view of domestic tourists and started calling them visitors, instead of tourists.  The IWPA also made things increasingly difficult for the domestic tourist to enjoy the wetland park, and supported the closure of all the beaches within the  park in terms of the 4x4 ban, and have done nothing to alleviate the huge loss of jobs and associated revenue caused by the fact that the domestic tourism market had a partial collapse, where KZN tourism estimated that 20 000 or more people lost their economic opportunities within the St. Lucia region. see http://bit.ly/ocasionalpaper20

I left the Mtubatuba area in 2010  and have since then not been that active in the fight to open the Elephant coast beaches to reasonable motor vehicle traffic.  There has been a call by some to get me back into this fight, but i am not willing to step into this fight untill such time as I get a public mandate and proper support from the ARBU (Association of Recreational Beach Users) to this end I have established a petition with the AVAAST community and would appreciate it if you took the time and effort to sign that petition, as well as s hare it with your friends, your customers and your online audience.

AVAAZ Community petitions

Once there are enough signatures on this petition I will truly pick up the fight and put pressure on the IWPA to come clean and do what needs to be done to fix the issues associated with the 4x4 ban.  These are difficult issues that have many thorny aspects that most are afraid of tackling due to the divisions within the public on the 4x4 ban issue which is as a result of the pressures of the mining industry on theSouth African Government to get mining permits for the area between Cape St. Lucia Light House and the Mozambique border at Kozi bay.

This in itself is another controversial issue that needs to be addressed with the idea that the rehabilitation of the land after mining is the primary issue.  The area is already in great ecological distress from poor management of the environment for a number of decades, and  lake St. Lucia is no longer  functioning as the fish breeding grounds that it was once world famous for.  Global warming and changing rainfall pattens as well as the poor agricultural management of the catchment area are issues that need to be mitigated and some form of relief for the past damages as associated with the drought in the late 1950's and the subsequent floods in 1963 which caused major disruptions in the ecological functioning of lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system.  In the late 1960's there was an opportunity to dredge the lake back to its former glory, as the Dutch government had made some offers to assist in this regard, but politics got in the way and this project (DREDGING THE LAKE) was shelved, and forgotten.

These issues are still with us and are now even more vital to fix.  The only way that this will happen is if these issues are addressed at the mandated public participation process meetings, which the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has been mandated to conduct in terms of the NEMA (National Environmental Management Act) and its subservient legislation such as the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) and the  ROD that closed all the south African beaches to motor vehicle driving, and many others.  The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has also been mandated by the MSA or Municipal Systems act to have zoning maps and related issues in place, all of which have mandated Public participation process procedures that need to be done during the implementation phases of these laws and associated legislation.

I have personally had great difficulty in discovering when and where these PPPM's (Public Participation Process Meetings)  will be held, and have sent email to the registered email address for he IWPA as per their web site and other official publications and had a ZERO response from them.  these emails are available upon request, and are my leverage when it comes to going to court because the IWPA have failed to implement the law, and the subsequent court cases that will be following in the not to distant future, as I have intentions of pushing these issues untill the courts either force the IWPA to comply, or the IWPA is replaced by a competent organisation that will run the IWP (iSimangaliso Wetland Park) as is deemed appropriate by the WHC (world heritage Council) at the UN (United Nations)

.

Your moral support is required for us to proceed.

During our stay within the St. Lucia region we also learned that there were very serious allegations of further mismanagement of the esturay, when the IWPA dug a trench which linked the Umfolozi River mouth to the Lake St. Lucia Estuary, which has since silted up and closed up further due to wind erosion which has made this trench ineffective and meaningless in terms of water management within the lake St. Lucia water systems.

There will be a follow up post discussing this just as soon as I am able to confirm things and have spoken to the sponsors of this action.

We as the ARBU managment require your input and you may send email to us at arbu@info4u.co.za

If you have any information that may shed extra light on these allegations of mismanagement of the St. Lucia water flow issues, please forward them to us at arbu@info4u.co.za or see our Google plus page 

this is part of the 4u2gofishing project which uses the hashtag #4u2gofishing

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