Environmental Affairs & Tourism South Africa

Government bodies are snubbing SA’s golf estates for no good reason

2007-02-07T07:45:00.001-08:00

GOLF estate development remains a focal point for the environmental affairs and tourism department, which continues to grapple with its “balanced scorecard” approach to residential estate development, advocating higher density development and a broader socioeconomic investment base.

To date, the department’s approach has been simply to “sterilise” new projects, particularly in sensitive coastal areas in Western Cape, where more than 30 new developments remain on hold within the office of Western Cape MEC for environment, planning and economic development Tasneem Essop.

Developments that remain in limbo include the R1bn Retief Goosen signature LagoonBay Lifestyle development near George, as well as the R1,4bn second phase of the Arabella Country Estate at Hermanus. Both applications have been in the queue for more than three years, adding significant costs to both marquee developments.

Werner Roux, CEO of LagoonBay, says the deferrals have resulted in a number of investors walking away from the development while its community-based, R150m social upliftment programme could be in jeopardy given further delays.

John Bumpsteed, director of golf at Arabella’s Western Cape Hotel & Spa, says Arabella has appealed against the department’s initial negative verdict on the second phase more than a year ago, based on its favourable environmental assessment, shared by Cape Nature Conservation. Arabella is hopeful of a positive outcome.

Bumpsteed says the approval delay was difficult to understand given that the development would benefit the region by creating a greenbelt into perpetuity, as well as creating about 1000 sustainable jobs, with a further 7000 during construction.

Andy Bean, MD of golf course developers Matkovich & Hayes, says modern developers are acutely aware of the impact they have on the environment. “Golf estates are well regulated and the utmost attention is given to ensuring that contractors don’t misbehave. Certainly, the fines handed out in the event of nonadherence don’t make it worth their while.”

Dave McGregor, sales and marketing director of Pinnacle Point Holdings, says developers need to find design and operational solutions that are both creative and economical. “One major cost element in the development of our flagship Pinnacle Point golf development at Mossel Bay was the R24m upgrade and relocation of the inefficient sewage treatment plant, which up until recently had spewed unfiltered sewage into the sea. The upgrade has also allowed grey water to be used to maintain the golf course.”

McGregor says indigenous animals have been reintroduced into the 120ha game reserve, and there has been significant investment to help preserve and encourage the growth of the 264 fynbos varieties indigenous to the region.

Riaan Gous, Arabella Holdings’ executive director and chairman of the Golf Estate Developers’ Forum, says while the continued adversarial relationship between the sector and government is obviously of deep concern to the industry, it is clear that golf plays an important role in the tourism market, accounting for an estimated R23 out of every R100 spent by international visitors.

Yet despite its acknowledged importance to tourism and to the local tax base, local authorities are notoriously uncooperative with golf estates. Pezula Championship Golf Course, for instance, is known to be affected by a water shortfall of about 1,8-million litres a day, as the city has limited its supply of effluent water to 1,2-million litres a day.

Pezula golf superintendent Andre Gerber says formal representation to the municipality has fallen on deaf ears. “Pezula has not taken municipal water for more than two years, so we are reliant only on rain and effluent water.

“But the lack of rainfall in December has taken its toll on our cool-season grasses, so we are focusing on ensuring our greens are watered — to the detriment of the fairways and rest of the course. The director of water affairs has basically told us that their doors are closed to us,” Gerber says.

Bean agrees that within the South African context, water is the biggest issue. “Grasses such as coastal paspalum are being used that can be irrigated with salt water and we are continuously assessing and researching better irrigation methods,” he says.

At Elements Private Golf Reserve, for instance, water usage has been reduced through the bush oasis style of the course, while Ebotse Golf and Country Estate has rehabilitated a disused kaolin mine, covering the surface with indigenous bushes, grasses and trees. At Cotswold Golf Estate, Matkovich & Hayes is growing more than 15000 indigenous trees as well as 3,2- million sprigs of indigenous grass.

“Most developers are going well above and beyond environmental regulations, and most also have substantial spin-off economic benefits for local communities. Delays simply send the wrong international message,” says Roux.

Pebble bed fuel gets nod

2007-02-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

January 30 2007
The government has given the final go-ahead for the production of nuclear fuel for the controversial Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project at Koeberg, and for the transport of both this fuel and the raw material used to produce it.

This follows Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk's dismissal of several appeals against his department's earlier approvals of the project.

The nuclear fuel will be manufactured by the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa) at a pilot plant within its Beva complex at Pelindaba in North West.

The raw material for the fuel will be transported to Pelindaba from Durban, and the manufactured fuel will be brought from Pelindaba to Koeberg.

Meanwhile, the closing date for comments on the Revised Final Scoping Report for the project has been extended to March 10. Scoping is the first phase in the statutory environmental impact assessment (EIA) process.

The extension was welcomed by the Cape Town branch of Earthlife Africa.

The organisation had earlier expressed "outrage" at the four-week comment period for the highly technical, 633-page report, which it described as "attempts to curtail public participation in decision-making" about the PBMR project.

A former director general in Van Schalkwyk's department, Chippy Olver, issued a positive record of decision (RoD) approving the application to manufacture and transport the nuclear fuel in June 2003.

He issued a positive RoD to Eskom Holdings Limited at the same time, approving the environmental aspects of the proposed PBMR project at Koeberg. He linked the two decisions with a clause stating that the authorisations were dependent on each other.

There were appeals against both RoDs but, before any decision was made, Earthlife Africa successfully challenged the RoD granting in respect of Eskom's application to build the PBMR at Koeberg in a review action in the Cape High Court.

Announcing his decision on the appeals, Van Schalkwyk said legal advice to his department was that, despite the initial linking of the two RoDs, the decision on the nuclear fuel manufacturing plant was not affected by the court judgment.

Appeals had related to:
# Dissatisfaction with the EIA process, notably the public participation aspect.
# Concern about the long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste and contaminated materials.
# Alleged inadequate consideration of alternatives to the fuel plant.
# Environmental impacts associated with the fuel plant in terms of radiological safety and accident scenarios.
# Economic feasibility, financial guarantees and public funding of the project.
# Opposition to the de-linking of the fuel plant and the PBMR, "with the contention that neither process should be viewed in isolation".

Van Schalkwyk said the two projects would be established in different places, were different in nature, and had "vastly different" environmental risks.

"Although they might be related, it is clear that each project could be implemented independently from the other."

Referring to concerns about graphite fires, Van Schalkwyk said the nuclear energy corporation had said there were "no feasible scenarios for such an occurrence".

"Adequate measures are in place to ensure that safety and health aspects are sufficiently catered for through the various phases of project evaluation and approval.

"Negative environmental impacts ... can be sufficiently mitigated, provided the conditions contained in this record of decision are implemented and adhered to."

Lion breeders in uproar about canned hunting

2007-01-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

South African lion breeders are prepared to go to court to test regulations on canned hunting, specifically of lions, the deputy chairperson of the South African Predator Breeders' Association said on Wednesday.

While the regulations, to come into force in March, do not ban lion hunting outright, they stipulate the circumstances under which it can take place. What they do not specify is the size of properties on which hunting would be allowed to take place, the association's Thys Mostert complained.

The new laws also require that lions be free-ranging for six months before they can be hunted, he said.

A Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism statement on the Biodiversity Act regulations on threatened and protected species notes only that hunting camps be "reasonably big", said Mostert.

"We have a problem with this. This could mean that certain people would hunt lions in a two-hectare area. We want the area to be a thousand hectares," he said.

Questioning the period for which the lions have to be free to roam, Mostert said lion breeders do not understand the provision. "Where does [Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk] get the six months from? Why must other animals not walk six months before being hunted?" he asked.

Mostert said lion breeders are aware of the problems in the industry and want to resolve them. "Things need to happen in a proper and ethical manner," he said.

In the Free State alone, up to 100 people have bred lions in captivity in one way or another -- some for tourism purposes, he said, estimating there are about 3 000 captive-bred lions in the country.

Mostert said the answer to the problem of canned hunting does not lie in a complete ban on lion hunting. "Then you have to ban all hunting. This includes buck hunting. Everything," he said.

Banning lion hunting altogether would also leave the government open to claims for costly infrastructure put in place in line with legislation.

The draft regulations on norms and standards for hunting in South Africa were put together by a panel of experts appointed by Van Schalkwyk. In December last year, his department said it had recommended a ban on captive breeding for anything other than scientific and conservation purposes.

Captive bred is defined as "bred in a controlled environment" and refers to enclosures that prevent the escape of listed, threatened or protected species, but facilitate intensive breeding. It excludes breeding on fenced land on which self-sustaining wildlife populations are managed in an extensive wildlife system.

The panel also recommended a prohibition on hunting in national and provincial parks.

Kortbroek gets new teeth

2007-01-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

SA's coast is a treasure and a new law makes sure it stays that way If you own property on the coast, read this carefully.

SA's coast is a treasure and a new law makes sure it stays that way If you own property on the coast, read this carefully. Government is proposing powerful legislation to ensure that SA's 3 000 km coastline is made pristine and kept that way.

Department of environmental affairs & tourism spokesman Niel Malan is adamant that the Integrated Coastal Management Bill will be used conservatively amid fears that government could stick to the letter of the law, which provides it with new draconian powers over private properties.

But the draft bill's 105 sections and three schedules are necessarily tight to protect a vital economic and natural resource. How they will be applied is crucial but the rights given to environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk are powerful. They include :

Extending the prohibition on the common law property right that gives families who built illegal coastal holiday homes effective ownership after 32 years beyond the seashore to other public land; Expropriating any property through the Expropriation Act if he wants to add to the coastal public zone (see table, right);

Reducing all leases and occupational rights of restaurants and businesses (including hotels) in harbours or on beaches or other areas in the coastal public zone to leases of between two and four years;

Issuing repair and removal notices for structures, even on private property, in the coastal zone that have been built illegally, or will "adversely affect the environment". Ignoring such an order could result in a fine of R500 000 or five years in prison or community service, or both;

Prohibiting or controlling buildings facing the coastal zone, but located outside it, that might aesthetically or otherwise undermine the zone's precedence over commercial or residential interests; Taking over any private land that falls within the high water mark without compensation; this could be adjusted should the high water mark rise in future;

Declaring portions of private land coastal access land to ensure there are public routes to beaches or other state-owned coastal properties. This can be done without compensation to owners ;

Taking effective control of provincial or municipal environmental management by instructing them to carry out specific actions if he is not happy with the way they manage their coastline;

Creating a national coastal management programme and committee whose decisions override provincial and local committees; and Imposing a coastal zoning scheme that takes precedence over a municipal zoning scheme. Malan says this is to ensure consistency.

The bill attempts to overcome the biggest threat to the coastal environment: poor environmental management by municipalities, most of which are relatively small, or provinces because of lack of skills or corruption.

Malan says that thousands of houses, slipways, jetties and other structures along the coast could be affected. "We are already ordering the demolition of 100 houses on the Groen river and another 100 on the west coast, using other legislation," he says. "But it isn't powerful enough to deal with all the structures."

But he insists that the bill's powers are not excessive. "The powers given to the authorities by the bill are all set within strict processes, including public participation, to ensure they are used transparently and fairly.

"For instance, we intend honouring existing leases and rights and the people who have them have nothing to fear as long as what they are paying for them is market-related and their activity doesn't threaten the environment." But Malan concedes that existing leases and rights will automatically be reduced to a maximum of 49 months until the minister converts them to coastal leases - which he can refuse.

Environmentalists are thrilled with the bill and the rewards of a pristine coastline should be incalculable for tourism and the economy. But the minister's new powers over private property and local authorities may raise serious concerns about infringing existing rights. They could have a tough passage through public participation and parliamentary processes.

The bill comes at a time when government is considering other measures that could affect private coastal property ; this week agriculture & land affairs minister Lulama Xingwana received the final report of the panel of experts appointed to look into the regulation of property purchases by foreigners. The report is likely to be published early next year.

In its interim recommendation, the panel suggested an immediate freeze on the sale of properties to foreigners, but that was rejected by government.

New hunting legislation makes no difference

2006-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

The government says it has banned canned hunting, but wildlife organisations claim it has not.

All the government has done with its new hunting legislation, say wildlife organisations, is to rule that no large captive-bred predators, like lions, may be hunted within six months of their being released onto a property.

After six months, there is nothing in the legislation to say they cannot be hunted, nor is there any stipulation of the size of the property on which the hunt can take place.

When the legislation was released in Gauteng on Tuesday, media were told by Fundisile Mketeni, a deputy director at the department of environment affairs and tourism, that Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk had been threatened with major lawsuits by lion breeders and hunters if he banned canned hunting.

But on Wednesday Environment Affairs' director-general Pam Yako issued a statement which contradicted this, and said "canned hunting will continue to be prohibited in terms of yet-to-be-promulgated regulations".

Yako added: "While we endorse the notion of sustainable use, the department shall never condone unacceptable hunting practices, including the so-called canned hunting, or purely economic activities disguised as industry contributions to wildlife management strategies."

But Jason Bell-Leask, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, says the regulations do allow canned hunting. He says the government has clamped down on the practice, by outlawing the hunting of drugged animals and other measures, but it has not banned it.

"Breeding of lions is still allowed, and the captive-bred lions are still allowed to be hunted. What is different is that they cannot be hunted immediately, but you will have to wait six months to do so.

"And the legislation makes no stipulation of the size of the property on which these captive lions can be hunted. One of the issues about canned lion hunting was the small size of the enclosures that they were hunted on. So we still have captive-bred lions being hunted on small properties, some of them smaller than rugby fields.

"If that is not canned hunting, what is? Where is the principle of fair chase?" Bell-Leask said.

He said the business interests of the hunting industry had prevailed over the welfare of the animals.

Cops watch as crayfish is poached

2006-12-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Fishermen and women illegally poached hundreds of crayfish off the coast of Paternoster in broad daylight, after first warning authorities of what they planned to do.

Police kept a low profile on Tuesday, with only one car in the beach parking lot, as the fishers went ahead with their act of defiance to highlight their exclusion from the fishing rights process, along with the environment minister's failure to respond to repeated requests for relief.

In spite of not having the necessary permits or licences, the fishers put to sea about 7am in 20 fishing boats to harvest crayfish.

After hauling about 12 full crates back to shore about noon, unchallenged by the authorities, and applauded by supporters, the fishers stood selling their catch to passing tourists.

A group of traditional fishermen and women from Paternoster and neighbouring West Coast fishing towns gathered on the beach in support of those who risked being jailed.

Naseegh Jaffer, director of Masifundise, a trust that promotes the rights of fishing communities, said a request had been made to environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk to provide emergency relief for the fishers during the Christmas season. The request was to allow fishers to remove 10 crayfish and 50 linefish each day.

Jaffer said Masifundise had contacted Marine and Coastal Management inspectorate about their planned harvest and had invited Van Schalkwyk to the beach to meet them.

Following the successful protest, Jaffer said: "What it did was to build a sense of solidarity and openly displays a net of defiance."

Christa Taylor of Paternoster waited anxiously on the shore for her husband Derrol and the other fishers to return on Tuesday.

The Taylors have three children, one of whom works in a fishing factory, and have lived in Paternoster all their lives.

"Our people have nothing. The government is making criminals of us," she said.

The family has a permit to remove and sell four crayfish a day. Selling these on the black market brought in about R100 "on a good day".

"But not every day is a good day," she said.

André Share, chief director responsible for resource management at the marine and coastal management branch of the department of environmental affairs and tourism, told the Cape Argus his department could not allow the lawlessness to continue.

He said they were awaiting reports of Tuesday's illegal fishing operation from fishing control officers.

Share was unaware that the department had advance warning of the action.

"Nowhere in the world would fish and fish alone be able to sustain an entire community," he said.

The department would conduct a socio-economic impact study to determine the damage and would look into alternative possibilities for the people involved in the action, he said.

The fishers said they had invited Van Schalkwyk because they wanted to show him that they were only trying to feed their families.

They also wanted him to see the traditional boats and gear so he could understand proposals they had submitted requesting the prioritising of the rights and needs of the traditional fishing sector.

Scramble to ease jitters over foreign land sales

2006-12-23T10:04:00.001-08:00

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday moved to calm a jittery property market, saying the draft Integrated Coastal Management Bill would not restrict foreign purchases of coastal land — as threatened by a senior government official last week.

A cabinet statement last week that said draft legislation would help curb the sale of coastal land to foreigners caused consternation, especially at the luxury end of the market. Of an estimated R2-trillion worth of property assets in SA, about R22,5bn worth is owned by foreigners.

There have been repeated threats of a curb on the sale of land, especially coastal land, to foreigners, and last week’s cabinet statement appeared finally to give effect to these threats.

The cabinet statement said: “The environment and tourism minister (Van Schalkwyk) will announce further details on what steps government could take to arrest this trend. Otherwise, South Africans could wake up one day and discover that only foreign nationals and the super-rich had access to our coastline.”

Just hours later, however, government spokesman Themba Maseko issued another statement conceding he had erred in his earlier interpretation of the bill.

He said government had no plans to limit the sale of coastal land to foreigners.

Explaining the confusion, Van Schalkwyk yesterday said the draft adopted by the cabinet last week would give government more teeth to control illegal structures built in the coastal zone.

Although the property industry accepted the clarification, an observer, who declined to be named, said the bill would still shut out foreigners in the coastal areas. “They want stability and do not want to create the notion that foreigners are being shut out. That will be bad for investment. But the reality is that this is some form of regulation.”

The bill, which for the next three months will be open for public comment, gives legal effect to the white paper for sustainable coastal development of 2000 and replaces the Seashore Act and the Control of Dumping at Sea Act. Van Schalkwyk said the bill aimed to preserve the integrity of SA’s coastline but would not restrict the foreign purchase of coastal land as initially reported. It declares the seashore, tidal waters (such as estuaries) and SA’s territorial seas to be coastal public property over which the state must act as trustee, conserving and using it for the benefit of the community and future generations.

“This is the first piece of legislation that gives authority to control illegal structures through issuing of repair and removal notices. This will help government ensure that the ecological integrity of the coastal zone is not compromised”, the minister said.

“The bill also provides new measures to protect coastal areas from being degraded by inappropriate developments and pollution. It will establish a buffer zone inland of the high-water mark within which certain activities will be prohibited and additional development controls will be applied.”

Government will be empowered to prevent development too close to the sea by establishing “set-back lines”.

One provision of the bill will require that public-access servitude be established to ensure that everyone can have access to the coast, which in the past has been restricted by exclusive golf and residential developments.

The bill will also establish a system of coastal planning at national, provincial and local level.

South Africa to regulate sale of coastal land

2006-12-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

The South African cabinet on Thursday approved draft legislation regulating the sale of coastal land to foreigners and the wealthy.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said the cabinet had approved the Integrated Coastal Management Bill to halt the "unmitigated sale of coastal land which has the effect of limiting public access to South Africa's coastline.

"Otherwise, South Africans could wake up one day and discover that only foreign nationals and the super-rich have access to our coastline," he said.

Further details were expected to be announced by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Sunday.

The property boom of recent years has seen a proliferation of houses and golfing estates built along South Africa's coast, reducing public access as well as raising concerns about the effect on the environment.

Earlier this year a government-appointed panel of experts recommended a moratorium on foreign ownership of property in South Africa, after concerns were raised that international bargain hunters in countries with strong currencies were pushing up property prices beyond the reach of the average citizen.

However, Maseko said the bill was aimed at addressing the issue of coastal land being parceled off and sold, but said: "This may be the first legal instrument government is putting on the table as a way of opening the discussion about the sale of land to foreigners in this country."

Foreigners face SA property ban

2006-12-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

The South African government is to take its first step to regulate foreign land ownership - particularly along the Cape coastal area - which it says is being increasingly sold off at excessively high prices which only foreigners and "the super rich" can afford.

Fuller detail of the Integrated Coastal Management Bill will be made known on Sunday by Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

Government spokesperson, Themba Maseko, said on Thursday that cabinet was extremely concerned about "the mushrooming of estates in many parts of the country particularly in the Cape".

Certain sections of land had "basically been closed off and sold off" at a very high price which "only the super rich and foreigners" could afford.

Maseko, reading a written statement on Thursday after Wednesday's cabinet meeting in Pretoria, said cabinet had expressed its concern about the unmitigated sale of coastal land "which has the effect of limiting public access to South Africa's coastline".

He said the minister of environmental affairs and tourism "will announce further details on what steps government could take to arrest this trend".

"Otherwise South Africans could wake up one day and discover that only foreign nationals and the super rich had access to our coastline," said Maseko.

Focus on foreign ownership of land first arose in August 2004 when then Land and Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza named a nine-person committee to probe the issue of land ownership and land use by foreigners headed by Professor Shadrack Gutto, director of the Centre for African Renaissance Studies.

Earlier this year Gutto in an interim report recommended an immediate moratorium on the sale of land to foreigners.

Elephant calves need help

2006-11-14T06:38:00.000-08:00

Interim legislation was urgently needed to stop elephant calves from being removed from herds for use in the safari and film industry and as working animals.

This was the opinion of a working committee, consisting of provincial conservation agencies across the country, as formulated in a document compiled by the KwaZulu-Natal department of agriculture and environmental affairs.

This working committee believed tourists should be informed about the "serious ethical and moral" issues regarding the capture and taming of these animals and called upon the national department of environmental affairs and tourism to immediately establish interim legislation on a national level to stop these "unethical practices".

According to the document, permits were still being issued (by provincial authorities who did not form part of the work-group) for the capture and sale of elephant calves. These elephant calves were broken-in and tamed for use in elephant safaris and the film industry.

The working committee proposed that Marthinus van Schalkwyk, minister of environmental affairs and tourism establish interim legislation until the department's norms and standards for elephant management had been finalised, as the lack of legislation created loopholes for the exploitation of these animals for financial gain.

The working committee proposed that the interim legislation should determine that no elephant calves be removed from herds and that the import of these animals, whether tame or wild, to South Africa be banned.

According to the document, people who supported elephant safaris were under the false impression that these animals were saved from culling.

The working committee believed that cruel methods were used to tame the elephants for these industries.

Numerous flaws with R6bn toll road

2006-11-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

The national roads agency has been accused of manipulating a multibillion-rand highway project in a secret report commissioned by the government two years ago.

The 97-page report was quietly released by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) a few weeks ago, following pressure from environmental groups.

The report is a scathing review of the proposed N2 Toll Road between Durban and East London, and details numerous flaws with the controversial R6-billion venture, which was approved by then Environmental Affairs Minister, Valli Moosa, in 2003 but rejected by his successor, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, a year later.

Van Schalkwyk accepted the report’s conclusions that there was a lack of independence of the part of the environmental consultants, Bohlweki, who were partly owned by one of the member companies in the consortium.

But the report has also accused the roads agency, a staunch supporter of the project , of "manipulating" the bidding process to overcome the glaring conflict of interest between the environmental consultants and the consortium.

The report claims the agency achieved this by inserting itself as a co-applicant in the project , thereby hoping "to save the process from legal attack" and "cure the deficiency surrounding Bohlweki’s independence".

Nazir Alli, chief executive of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has yet to see the report. But he defended his agency this week, vehemently denying that it had manipulated the process.

"We didn’t understand the process in terms of who should or should not be the applicant. We did not try to manipulate the process . . . it would be downright stupid of us to do that. It is a total misrepresentation of the facts."

The report also found that:

# The motive for the project was financial gain rather than the provision of developmental infrastructure for surrounding communities;

# The numerous scoping studies and impact assessments that were submitted were flawed and, in most cases, vital information was omitted;

# There were insufficient public meetings and those that were held were used to promote the project , rather than inform people; and

# The impact on historical heritage, and sites of cultural, spiritual and religious importance, as well as the issue of land claims, was not addressed.

All these problems were apparently overlooked by the department when then Director-General Dr Chippy Olver approved the project in December 2003.

It took a flood of appeals and the subsequent report’s findings to convince Van Schalkwyk that his officials had erred, and he reversed the decision a year later. The consortium has since been busy compiling a fresh application.

The department’s spokesman, JP Louw, said approval came from the director-general’s office based on the information submitted to them at the time. "Once the report was commissioned, new details obviously came to the fore," he said.

Cathy Kay of Save the Wild Coast Campaign, which, along with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, pressured the department into releasing the report, said their concerns had been vindicated.

"It’s nothing but a financially driven thing for the benefit of a privileged few. And one can only then query what the vested interests were in this whole issue, from DEAT right down to Sanral, down to municipalities," said Kay.

Plastic bag levy for nothing

2006-11-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

Consumers have forked out more than R100-million to the government from the compulsory plastic bag tax - imposed three years ago to fund a national recycling programme - but to date not a single bag has been recycled from this lucrative fund.

The bulk of the money has gone straight into government coffers.

The government's 3c tax on every plastic carrier bag manufactured or imported into the country is built into the price - from 15c to 21c - that shoppers pay for a bag at the till. The tax was imposed on the manufacturing industry with the intention that the money collected would be used to set up a national recycling programme, which would both clean up the environment and create thousands of jobs.

While the price of plastic bags has meant consumers have not tossed them away as readily as they did in the past, resulting in a noticeable reduction of plastic bag litter, none of the money has been used to recycle plastic bags, nor have any recycling jobs been created.

And although consumers have been paying for carrier bags since May 2003, the South African Revenue Service started collecting the 3c tax only in mid-2004. At the end of the 2004/05 financial year, Sars had collected R41 214 000 from the plastic bag tax and in 2005/06 it collected R61 385 000. Sars collected no plastic bag tax for the 2003/04 financial year. It is not clear where the money from the tax went to in the initial year.

Although former environment minister Valli Moosa introduced the plastic bag tax with the purpose of cleaning up the environment, the Treasury does not allow taxes to be "ring-fenced" - kept in a separate kitty to be used for one purpose. The tax has therefore gone into government coffers, and the department of environment affairs and tourism has to apply to the Treasury to get any of that money back for recycling.

Since 2005, Environment Affairs has got just R18-million of the R102-million plastic bag levy back, which has been used to set up a Section 21 company, called Buyisa-e-Bag, to create and manage the recycling programme. But the company has been battling with red tape, which has meant that although 11 administrative and managerial posts were filled late last year and early this year, not one recycling depot has been established.

Another R5,1-million went to the South African Bureau of Standards, responsible for enforcing the plastic bag regulations, particularly ensuring that none of the former thin plastic carrier bags are produced or imported into the country.

Hennie Neethling, chairperson of the board of Buyisa-e-Bag and past president of the Institute of Waste Management, said Buyisa-e-Bag had encountered "brick walls of red tape" in trying to set up the national recycling initiative.

Neethling, tasked with heading the initiative to set up Buyisa-e-Bag and appoint staff, said land for recycling depots had to be identified and leased from municipalities, environmental impact assessments had to be completed, and permits granted, all of which was taking far longer than expected.

Although industry and labour were represented on the Buyisa-e-Bag board, retailers had pulled out and there was no consumer representation.

Neethling said that because the 3c tax could not be "ring-fenced" for recycling, it had become "just another tax".

"(Finance minister) Trevor Manuel took the levy into his big pockets, but he's got very short arms. We should have put more pressure on the government and been more demanding. Since the 3c levy was imposed, it hasn't paid for a single bag to be recycled," he said.

Before consumers started paying for plastic bags, retailers absorbed the cost into their overheads. Many believe the retailers are now making money out of the plastic bag price.

Pick 'n Pay and Shoprite both say they charge customers "well below cost" for the bags. Neither would divulge what the cost price was, nor would Nampak Polyfoil, a major plastic bag manufacturer.

Bill Naude, who retired as chairperson of the Plastics Federation of South Africa last month, said he did not believe this. "I would very much like to see that. The retail industry has turned a R400-million a year cost into a R400-million cash flow. That is not a lot in their lives, but it's the principle involved. I reckon they're creaming it."

Plastic bag tax not used as planned

2006-11-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

The government has failed to use the money collected from plastic bag tax -- about R100 million -- for the intended purpose of recycling.

Not a single plastic bag has so far been recycled from the fund.

The tax was imposed about three years ago to fund a national recycling programme, but the bulk of the money collected went straight into government coffers.

Deputy director-general of environment affairs Joanne Yawitch said her department intended commissioning a study to assess the success of the plastic bag initiative.

The department recognised that there were some problems with the scheme, she said.

Patrol vessels cost too much

2006-11-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

South Africa’s four new marine patrol vessels, bought at a cost to the taxpayer of close to half a billion rand, are spending more time in port then they ought to because Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) cannot afford to run them.

The new vessels, together with another four vessels operated by MCM, cost on average R690 000 a day each to keep at sea, and R220 000 a day to keep in harbour, Parliament’s environmental affairs portfolio committee heard.

According to department of environmental affairs officials, the vessels now spend an average 175 days a year at sea, compared to an “optimum” 250 days. Also, some of the sea time is not in the service of MCM, but under charter.

Briefing members on the status of the Marine Living Resources Fund (MLRF), created to pay for the operating costs of the new vessels, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk admitted planning at the time a decision was taken to buy them had gone awry.

“On the expenditure side, there we have the huge challenge of the vessels, and especially the operational costs.”

This was a very difficult challenge, he said, seemingly laying the blame for the problem with the previous management of MCM.

“You receive advice and a model from people who are supposed to know what the costs will be, but it turned out that it was not the correct model that MCM relied on at that stage,” Van Schalkwyk said.

Speaking at the briefing, his director-general, Pam Yako, said the MLRF was “not able to generate income that exceeds expenditure”.

For every one rand earned (this year), 80 cents is spent on the (eight patrol and research) vessels. Fuel for the vessels comprises 60 percent of this cost,” she said.

According to a document circulated at the briefing, fuel costs “increased by 192 percent over the past four years... (and) this could not be recovered from the industry”.

Among the MLRF’s revenue sources are levies on fish products, licence fees and the cost of permits.

Yako warned there “would have to be an increase in what people pay for fishing licences” if the fund was to meet all its obligations.

This was alluded to by Van Schalkwyk, who earlier told MPs a cost-recovery programme needed to be agreed with South Africa’s fishing industry... “to make sure that industry also takes ownership of basically their own industry,” he said.

The MLRF also generates money through the sale of confiscated abalone. It currently has R30 million worth of this -- about 80 tons of “wet” product -- sitting in its warehouses, according to officials.

The fund has been lashed by the Auditor General over the past four years for its lack of internal controls; having no proper accounting or fixed-asset system; lacking historical data and supporting documentation; and insufficient control on debtors and income.

Van Schalkwyk told the committee: “Looking back at it now, I don’t believe it was the proper decision to create a fund outside of the department.”

According to the briefing documents, Treasury has agreed to fund a R35 million “shortfall” for the vessels during the current financial year (2006/07). It has also “agreed to assist with vessel costs over the next three financial years”.

Yako said this would amount to R68 million a year.

The four vessels are the coastal patrol boats Lilian Ngoyi, Ruth First and Victoria Mxenge, and the deep-sea vessel Sarah Baartman. Orders for the vessels were placed in May 2002, and all delivered before the end of January last year.

The Sarah Baartman, the flagship and biggest of the patrol fleet, was put out on charter last month.

Shortage of assessors for environmental impact assessments

2006-10-31T02:14:00.000-08:00

Government had put in place a more streamlined system to get rid of the backlog of environmental impact assessments (EIAs), which was holding back development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.

Many developers have complained that the lengthy delays and costs in completing EIAs have made their projects unviable. In some instances, EIAs have taken up to three years to complete.

Van Schalkwyk expressed concern about the quality of EIAs and the dearth of expert assessors.

“Last month, we gave the interim board of Environmental Assessment Practitioners until the end of November to formalise their structure and action plan, failing which we will be forced to legislate on this matter,” he said.

Policy will split aquaculture sector

2006-10-29T12:03:00.000-08:00

The aquaculture industry fears that the release of a draft policy to regulate marine and fresh water farming will further fragment the sector. The release of the draft policy by Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), a branch of the department of environmental affairs and tourism, was contrary to an agreement reached last November that separate draft policies by MCM and the department of agriculture would be amalgamated for public comment, said Lizeth Botes, who chairs the Southern Aquaculture Working Group.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish, abalone, crayfish and plants under controlled conditions in marine or fresh water.

South Africa contributes less than 1 percent of African aquaculture production, which in turn contributes about 1 percent of global output.

The industry had now requested that the draft policy be withdrawn, Botes said.

In the draft policy for the development of sustainable aquaculture sector in South Africa, the department says the principal challenges that the government is seeking to address are poverty and unemployment.

The contribution of commercial fisheries to food security and employment has been declining since the 1950s due to a decline in fish stocks. This has been exacerbated by shifts in distribution of some fish species, resulting in the closure of a number of fish processing establishments and job losses, mainly along the West Coast.

Like the rest of the world, South Africa would experience a shortage in fish supply in the medium to long term. Many countries therefore were looking to bolster their fish supply using aquaculture, one of the fastest-growing food production systems in the world.

Over the past 15 to 20 years it has developed into a global industry with more than 60 countries engaging in the production of more than 250 species of shellfish, crustaceans and aquatic plants.

According to the draft policy the current profile of the sector is highly skewed, with most of the farms occurring in the Western Cape. In addition the industry is dominated by large commercial enterprises farming mostly with abalone.

It is therefore envisaged that attempts will be made to reduce entry transaction costs through the streamlining of administrative processes such as the permit system.

Botes said both MCM and the department of agriculture had developed draft policies, but in November last year they had agreed that they would amalgamate the policies and undertake a public participation process. An amalgamated policy was supposed to have been released, but MCM had instead released a draft policy without making it clear that it was a draft only aimed at marine aquaculture.

Botes said the industry felt its requests had been ignored on several occasions and that MCM had reached an agreement without honouring it.

Blessing Manale, the chief director of communication at environmental affairs, said the industry was not the only sector with a vested interest, but labour and the scientific community as well, and the draft policy was now a matter of public debate.

Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the minister of environmental affairs and tourism, would consider all public comment, including views expressed at a coming bilateral consultation.

Not enough blacks benefit from tourism

2006-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

There was a glaring absence of black participation in KwaZulu-Natal’s tourism industry and fewer than 10% of the province’s tour-operating enterprises were owned by historically disadvantaged individuals, said Tourism KZN chairman Seshi Chonco.

Addressing a conference, he said tourism industry empowerment both in the province and nationally had been slow. A charter and scorecard had been developed but there was little research to determine the extent of transformation, he said.

Tourism Information Services GM James Seymour said tourism was growing rapidly in the province, to the extent that last year’s number of foreign tourist arrivals outstripped the figure for Western Cape for the first time.

Tourism is said to be the fastest-growing industry in the world and many countries are using it to stimulate economic growth and to create jobs.

Chonco said hotel occupancy between January and July was 72% in KwaZulu-Natal and 76% for greater Durban, compared with the national average of 69%.

More than R2,5bn had been spent on tourism in the past two years in the province and there was an 18% growth in passenger arrivals at Durban International Airport last year.

Chonco questioned how much of the increase in tourism spending since 1994 had benefited the poor.

He also questioned how many jobs and the number of small businesses had been created as a result of the reported growth.

Hard at work

2006-10-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

How the environment is being protected in South Africa

Dam(n) the environment

2006-10-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Construction of the R4,1bn De Hoop Dam in Limpopo has been approved despite heavy criticism from environmentalists.

Environmentalists expressed concern that the dam, which will be built on the Olifants River, would deprive most of the animals in the Kruger National Park of their main water source and cut the water supply to thousands of people in Mozambique.

At least 20 species of plants that occur nowhere else in the world are also in danger of being wiped out.

Environmental affairs and tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk admitted that the dam would harm the environment, but said there was no other alternative.

"The construction and operation of the dam will have a definite and substantial detrimental impact on the environment, (which) cannot be...avoided," he said.

He said measures must therefore be put in place to reduce the negative effects as much as possible.

Once complete the De Hoop Dam will store 347 million cubic metres of water and cover an area of about 1 690 hectares.

Executive director of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Dr Nicholas King, who submitted an appeal on behalf of the trust said not much else can be done to prevent the dam from being built.

"There are no legal steps that can be taken to stop the project. All we can do is wait for the revised ROD and suggest as many corrective measures as possible," he said.

The dam will be built by the department of Water Affairs and Forestry.

How to blow R98-million

2006-10-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

The state's Marine Living Resources Fund is R45-million in debt from having R53-million in its coffers by the end of March 2005.

The fund's travel and entertainment costs went up from just over R2-million in 2004/05 to R23-million in 2005/06. This comes after the annual budget for the 2005/06 financial year was reduced to less than the budget of 2002.

The fund is the operational budget of the Department of Environment and Tourism's Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) and is tasked with managing the country's multibillion-rand fishing industry.

The problems were highlighted in the newsletter of a company now run by former MCM head Horst Kleinschmidt and former MCM chief director Shaheen Moolla.

Kleinschmidt said it was time for the record to be set straight.

"MCM is making out that they inherited a financial mess we created, that they inherited a fund that was broke. That is simply not true. In 2004/05 we ran MCM and all its vessels on our budget, and we still came out with R53-million in the kitty."

Money woes facing MCM could affect almost every facet of the fishing industry, from the control of illegal fishing to the country's international markets.

The shortfall meant that MCM scrapped its annual scientific hake survey in 2005, the first time this survey had not been run since its inception in the 1970s.

The survey formed the basis of MCM's setting quotas for how much hake can be caught the following year.

Spreading the message

2006-10-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Five Hollywood television and film artists and one of the world’s finest guitarists are visiting SA to experience some of the attractions and spread the good news about the country when they go back home. Good luck to them. May they not get mugged, hijacked or murdered and may their luggage not be stolen.

The artists — all are members of Artists for a New South Africa (Ansa) and are in the country as guests of South African Tourism (SAT) and SAA — are Samuel L Jackson (Snakes on a Plane and Pulp Fiction), CCH Pounder (ER and Special Victims Unit), Jurnee Smollett (Eve’s Bayou and Cosby) and Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives and Homicide: Life on the Street). Musician Carlos Santana and members of his family are also travelling with the group.

Said Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, president of SAT in the US: “The celebrity ambassadors, whom we regard as friends of SA, contribute enormously to South African Tourism’s word-of-mouth and ambassadorship marketing, a strategy that works particularly well in the US.”

The group was taken on a tour of the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg by long-time friend Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs on Saturday and attended Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 75th birthday party in Sandton at the weekend. The group is now in KwaZulu-Natal.

Woodard, one of the founders of Ansa, said it comprised about 500 active members with “a bank of 8000 people of varying skills and talents who did what they could, when they could, to spread the good news on SA”.

Ansa is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to combating AIDS and advancing democracy and equality in SA and aiming to further civil rights and safeguard voting rights in the US.

Kortbroek backs down

2006-10-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, has decided to delay construction of the De Hoop dam project in the face of environmental concerns.

Van Schalkwyk will partially uphold appeals against the project, and plans to issue a revised Record of Decision (RoD) on or before 13 October, pending the outcome of a strategic environmental assesment process.

The Minister said in his report that although there is a clear need for the De Hoop dam to be constructed, he has directed the Deparment to initiate a process, in partnership with Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and other major authorities, to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment or related process that would guide future development and inform levels of acceptable change for the area in question.

The proposed project is a dam on the Steelpoort river, between Steelpoort and Roossenekal, a tributary of the Olifants river, on the farm De Hoop. The Steelpoort river flows into Mozambique, where the Massingir dam, which is in the process of being upgraded, has been constructed on the same stretch of river.

The Minister accepts that the construction and operation of the dam will have 'definite and substantial detrimental impacts on the environment' and that since these effects cannot be avoided, 'measures must be put in place to mitigate the potential impacts to acceptable levels'.

He is satisfied that the cumulative impacts to the environment have been adequately assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), but is still concerned about further cumulative impacts.

Van Schalkwyk also stressed that the current RoD, granted on 22 November 2005, did not highlight any of the positive socio-economic and ecological impacts that the De Hoop project could have.

The past is coming back to haunt Kortbroek

2006-10-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

Former NNP leader Marthinus "Kortbroek" van Schalkwyk and the party itself should have been in the dock in the Roodefontein case, David Malatsi said. Malatsi, a former Western Cape Environment MEC, was testifying in mitigation of sentence after being convicted of corruption on Wednesday by a Bellville regional magistrate.

He was found guilty of accepting a R100 000 donation to the NNP from developer Count Riccardo Agusta to smooth the way for provincial approval of Agusta's proposed Roodefontein golf estate at Plettenberg Bay.

Malatsi told the court it was Van Schalkwyk who had instructed him to go out and raise funds for the party. Although Van Schalkwyk was "never specific" about whether this should include fundraising by corrupt means, he had known where the Agusta money came from.

Malatsi said he regretted ever being a member of the New National Party. "When it comes to push they sell you out for convenience's sake".

Kortbroek masterminded my downfall

2006-10-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais was acquitted on two counts of corruption for allegedly receiving a total of R400000 from Agusta, destined for the New National Party (NNP). He said after his acquittal one of the reasons the Scorpions accepted a plea bargain from Agusta was that there could have been embarrassment within the ANC over the R1m donation from Agusta. Marais said Agusta, now believed to be in Monaco, had told him he had given the ANC R1m, but had turned down a request for a donation to the Democratic Alliance (DA) “because of their arrogance”.

Marais said Agusta had given donations not only to the NNP, but to the ANC as well, and if this fact had come out in court it would have seemed that such donations were “normal business” among political parties.

While Marais was acquitted of the charges, Malatsi was found guilty on a second count of accepting a cheque for R100000 from Agusta only days after the go-ahead was given for the Roodefontein golf development in Plettenberg Bay.

Malatsi was acquitted on the main corruption charge involving R300000, as well as on three charges of fraud and theft for allegedly falsely claiming expenses and stealing money from the NNP’s Khayelitsha constituency.

Marais slammed Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who he said had masterminded his political downfall.

Van Schalkwyk, who gave evidence during the trial, escaped relatively unscathed from the situation, with Le Grange making only a passing mention of his evidence, saying it did not take the matter on the main charge “any further”.

Marais said his legal team had indicated he should take “appropriate action” against Van Schalkwyk, but would not say what this involved.

Do not bother the minister

2006-10-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

THE Department of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) has banned fishermen from communicating directly with the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism or any other officials involved in the allocation of long-term fishing rights.

Fishermen now have to direct all correspondence with the Department via a single official, who fishermen say is not very high in the pecking order of the Department. The Kalk Bay Boat Owners Association (KBBOA) says this is an indication of how little priority the Department is granting fishing rights. The announcement comes not long after the Association sent a letter to the Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, pleading that he do something to prevent the Kalk Bay fishing community from being destroyed.

Most fishermen in the harbour have been denied traditional handline fishing rights and West Coast rock lobster quotas and appeals against the decisions have been delayed by MCM. According to KBBOA chairperson Aashiq Newman, traditional line fish applications closed in early October 2005. He says that seven months later, fishermen have not received forms from the Department to lodge their appeals. The closing date for appeals is 19 May.

According to a notice issued by MCM, correspondence between fishermen and the Department is being delayed by applicants sending correspondence to various officials in MCM, the Minister and even the President's office. "In terms of the general policy...the Department, the delegated authority and the Minister will not communicate with individual applicants on a private basis. Attempts to improperly influence the delegated or appellate authority constitutes an independent ground for refusing an application or appeal," the notice states. "Where is the Minister on this issue? He is noticeably silent," Newman says. "We need to establish the facts, but MCM is stonewalling through its silence and threatening blocking tactics. The Kalk Bay traditional linefishing fabric is already in tatters and if MCM gets away with this 'denial of rights' again, as it did with the medium term quotas, then our community is finished."

Newman fears that MCM's latest notice could be used to deny fishermen a fair appeal.

Environment be damned, let's build another dam

2006-10-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

Another large dam will be built in the catchment area of the Kruger National Park's largest river, the Olifants River, despite objections by South African National Parks Chief David Mabunda and several environmental groups.

The De Hoop Dam, which will provide water for new platinum mines and farms, was given the final go-ahead, when Environment Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk dismissed appeals from Mabunda and other objectors, who fear the project will reduce the water flow in the Olifants River.

However, Van Schalkwyk said he shared several of these fears and had ordered his department to begin a strategic environmental assessment study to mitigate and guide further development projects that threatened the ecological future of the park.

Although he believed the department of water affairs had demonstrated the need to build a dam, Van Schalkwyk acknowledged that the De Hoop project would have "definite and substantial detrimental impacts on the environment".

The dam is to be built in the Steelport River, a tributary of the Olifants River - which already has 30 large dams outside the park's boundaries and is frequently polluted by mines and industry in the Phalaborwa area.

Announcing his decision on Friday, Van Schalkwyk said appeals against the project had been lodged by several groups, including SanParks, the National Parks Support Group Trust, the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the South African Water Caucus.

Apart from concerns about the reduced water flow in the Olifants River and negative effect on tourism in the Kruger, some objectors also argued that the dam would only benefit mining and industry, rather than poor local communities.

Banning rescue helicopters

2006-09-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

This shows how the South African regime sweats the small stuff. To avoid damage to the environment, you can only land a rescue helicopter if there is a painted circle.

The Department of Environment's Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) has banned rescue helicopters from landing at fishing harbours along the South African coast.

National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) staff have described the ban as "crazy" and said it would have "dire consequences" for sea rescue operations. The move has also been condemned by the Department of Transport's Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

In a recent training exercise operation, NSRI staff and crew from the SA Air Force (SAAF) were threatened with arrest when they landed at the harbour in Hout Bay.

Brad Geyser, NSRI station commander at Hout Bay, said he had been told that Kalk Bay is the only fishing harbour of the 12 countrywide under MCM's jurisdiction where helicopters may land. He said he had tried in vain to establish from MCM why the new rule had been made, but the MCM official concerned, Dennis Marinus, had failed to respond to NSRI queries about the matter over several months.

Now the NSRI says they want to take the matter to Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe.

"This is crazy. What happens when there is an emergency at sea and a helicopter needs to land at Hout Bay?" Geyser said. He said last time the NSRI and the SAAF had trained together at Hout Bay harbour, the air force had landed two Oryx helicopters.

"The harbour master's 2 IC came and told us it was against the rules to land helicopters in the harbour, or in any of the other fishing harbours that did not have a designated helicopter landing zone, which is basically a bit of yellow paint drawn in a circle," Geyser said.

"This was news to us, and we asked who had given these instructions and we were told, Dennis Marinus from MCM head office. We tried to get someone we knew at MCM to intervene and we were told we could have till lunchtime to finish the training exercise, but by noon, the official was shouting over the phone that if we didn't leave now he would arrest the air force pilots and confiscate their helicopters," Geyser said.

He said NSRI stations had also had run-ins with MCM staff over the issue at Hermanus and Mossel Bay.

He said the 30 NSRI stations nationwide had always taken part in helicopter training programmes with the SAAF, and with civil helicopters on a regular basis, and had often used fishing harbours.

"It's obvious that this kind of training is crucial. How can we go out to rescue people at sea, which could involve airlifting them to safety, without proper training?" Geyser said.

Colonel Jinks Botes, head of Department of Transport's Maritime Rescue Co-ordinating Centre, said his organisation was "as perturbed" as the NSRI about MCM's new rule.

Cleeve Robertson, head of medical rescue in the Western Cape, said he had not been told about the rule. However, if there were a medical emergency, he would disregard it.

"I can tell you now, if it is in the interests of the patient's life that we land the helicopter at a fishing harbour, we will do that," Robertson said.

Trying hard to look busy

2006-09-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

There are too many elephants in South Africa's national parks. The solution seems simple - just cull a few elephants. Our minister is not letting an oportunity to look important pass him by. He needs to remind president Thabo Mbeki that he is a valued member of the regime. His people is therefore working very hard on a big document that will be available in draft form sometime real soon. The bunch of yes men he has collected wants to start a 20-year study, while the elephants continue to destroy the environment.

Thirteen of the world's leading elephant scientists have advised the government to establish a major multi-disciplinary research programme on managing South Africa's elephant population.

The Elephant Science Round Table met for a second time in Cape Town on Tuesday at the invitation of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

At their first meeting in January, the scientists agreed that there was no compelling evidence to suggest the need for immediate, large-scale reduction of elephant numbers in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

However, they said that elephant density, distribution and population structure might need to be managed in some of the country's protected areas, including the Kruger National Park, to meet biodiversity and other objectives.

They also said that, although a large body of scientific knowledge already exists, further research should inform any interventions to manage the country's elephant population.

On Tuesday, the scientists proposed the establishment of a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder research advisory platform to oversee a 20-year elephant research programme in the country.

"The state of knowledge regarding some important aspects of elephant management requires further research," the panel said.

This research programme should use an "adaptive management (learning by doing) approach" to ensure that the consequences of any elephant management interventions were carefully monitored, they added.

Van Schalkwyk told the scientists that the concept of adaptive management would form a key pillar of the draft norms and standards that would be published for public comment within the next few months.

"This will be a broad philosophical framework that provides guidance on the implementation of the National Environmental Management Act and the Biodiversity Act as they apply to elephants," the minister said. "It will spell out a range of options for managing population densities where this is necessary."

He said every proposed intervention would have to be motivated by local managers in a management plan subjected to a process of local public consultation.

Van Schalkwyk also invited the scientists to develop a comprehensive elephant research proposal, and suggested that the initiative be driven by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi).

"Elephants in confined populations can, in the absence of interventions, cause changes to the composition, structure and functioning of ecosystems in which they occur," the scientists said.

The scientists also noted that any management of elephant influence on an ecosystem took place within the context of human society and its objectives.

Decisions on managing elephants were dependent on land use and other objectives, and the techniques by which this could be practically achieved were situation-specific.

Trying to save a sinking ship

2006-09-13T23:43:00.000-07:00

How the regime tries to deal with financial mismanagament - appoint new managers, throw some money at the problem and hope for the best.

A number of steps had been taken to strengthen and improve the management and financial controls of the Marine Living Resources Fund, said Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday.

The fund, which has an operating revenue of more than R300m annually, is responsible for the conservation and economic development of the country’s marine and coastal environment. It gets its money from government as well as from harbour fees, licences, permits and levies on fish products.

The fund has received a series of negative reports over a number of years from auditor-general Shauket Fakie, who also complained about its management’s failure to adhere to the state’s financial controls.

Fund executives were called before Parliament’s environmental affairs and tourism portfolio committee yesterday to report on progress made in dealing with the deficiencies. They have also appeared before the standing committee on public accounts. Among Fakie’s complaints was that management failed to comply with legislation and national treasury regulations.

Van Schalkwyk said a new senior management team, including a new chief financial officer, was appointed for the fund in May last year. The team had instituted initiatives to improve the financial systems and procedures of the fund and it was also developing the staff’s skills capacity, he said. The new managers had also developed a financial system that would allow for better control and management of the fund’s budget.

Replying to another question, Van Schalkwyk noted that in the 2004-05 financial year five cases of financial misconduct involving about R115000 were uncovered in his department.

The paperwork for your project may be delayed for a while

2006-09-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

With typical South African efficiency, about two thirs of the work has not been than yet. But we are working on a better understanding of how to form a committee to investigate the problem.

SOME 237 of 335 environmental impact assessment applications had been outstanding for more than six months at the Port Elizabeth office of the department of economic affairs, environment and tourism at the end of August.

Of the 335, some 60 are being finalised. The Madiba Bay Leisure Park development, one of the major economic proposals in the city that had been experiencing delays had now been addressed, with a leading Gauteng environmental consultant due in Port Elizabeth on September 14 to work on the applications. Economic Affairs Environment and Tourism MEC Mbulelo Sogoni said several initiatives had been launched to address the backlogs in the Port Elizabeth office.

Sogoni said a meeting of minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk and MECs on August 25 had approved a R10-million budget to assist the nine provinces with backlogs. Consultants would be appointed nationally and seconded to the provinces.

The MEC stressed that it was necessary to appreciate the time it took to “deal with the various activities in terms of the legislation” and the work required of the independent consultant on behalf of the developer.

A University of Stellenbosch Bureau for Economic research report highlighted business‘s major concern that red tape was a threat to doing business in South Africa and a major constraint in lifting the growth rate above six per cent.

Advice from the First World about travel in the Third World

2006-09-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's not just New Zealand that is warning about tourism in South Africa. The word is out - South Africa is a very dangerous place to visit. Here is some sage advice to the good citizens of the UK, Canada and USA. The best advice to to stay at home, or visit soemother tranquil country. Lebanon is very nice this time of year, and much safer than South Africa.

The UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office states that “by any standards, South Africa has a very high level of crime, including rape and murder”. However, the advisory explains that “most cases of crime occur in the townships and in areas away from the main tourist destinations”. The office, which notes that more than 460 000 Britons visit South Africa every year, also cautions on road travel, where “the standard of driving is variable, and there are many fatal accidents”.

Canada’s Consular Affairs office states that while for several years, the political climate has generally been stable in South Africa, “you should be extremely vigilant when leaving Johannesburg International Airport by vehicle”. Further in Johannesburg, travellers should avoid “at all cost the Hillbrow area and refrain from venturing into Berea and Yeoville. Drug trafficking occurs in these areas”.

In Cape Town's central business district, travellers are advised to “walk purposefully and avoid walking leisurely with a camera or repeatedly looking at a map. Do not venture into this district after dark or during weekends. Theft, including from hotel rooms, is common”.

It seems that very little is safe: “backpacks and handbags have been taken while visitors are eating at restaurants, pubs and coffee shops. Do not leave your bag under your chair or hung over the back of a chair. It should be placed safely between your legs or hooked under the chair or on your lap. Theft, particularly of passports, is prevalent at international airports.

“Armed assaults, car-jackings, and muggings occur. Carry a cellular phone in the event of an emergency. Muggings and violent attacks have also taken place on local commuter and metro trains between Johannesburg and Pretoria, as well as on commuter trains in Cape Town. The incidence of reported rape in South Africa is high”.

The US Department of State is initially upbeat, saying that while “the vast majority” of visitors complete their travels in South Africa without incident, “visitors should be aware that criminal activity, sometimes violent, occurs routinely”. Notwithstanding government anti-crime efforts, the advice continues, violent crimes such as armed robbery, car-jacking, mugging, "smash and grab" attacks on vehicles, and other incidents are regularly reported by visitors and resident Americans.

Crimes against property, such as car-jacking, according to the US Department of State, “have often been accompanied by violent acts, including murder, when victims resist or are slow to respond to attackers’ demands”. South Africa also has the highest incidence of reported rape in the world, says this advisory. Foreigners are not specifically targeted, but several have been the victims of rape.

The US Department of State warns that criminal activity, such as assault, armed robbery, and theft, are “particularly high” in areas surrounding many hotels and public transportation centers, especially in major cities. Theft of passports and other valuables is most likely to occur at airports, bus terminals, and train stations.

A number of Americans have been mugged or violently attacked on commuter and metro trains, especially between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Several American travelers also reported theft of personal belongings after strangers whom they invited into their hotel drugged them. In at least one instance, the American died after being drugged and robbed in this manner.

There is a serious baggage pilferage problem at Johannesburg and Cape Town International airports, according to the US Department of State. In the Western Cape, police resources have been strained by continuing gang conflicts and vigilante violence in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town.

Armed robbery of cash-in-transit vehicles and personnel occur throughout South Africa, says the advisory, and peaks during December and January due to the increase in cash flow from commercial stores to banks. These attacks have also included incidents at major malls and in large grocery stores. Individuals should raise their level of situational awareness while in the vicinity of cash-in-transit vehicles and personnel.

The US Department of State warns further that credit card fraud, counterfeit US currency, and various cheque-cashing scams are frequently reported. The advice is to not accept "assistance" from anyone, or agree to assist others with ATM transactions. Travelers should try to avoid using ATMs after bank business hours or in remote locations.

“When giving your credit card to a store or restaurant employee for processing”, the advisory states, “do not let them take the card out of your sight. Visitors should also beware of telephone or e-mail schemes, which attempt to win the confidence of an unsuspecting American who is persuaded either to provide privileged financial information or travel to South Africa to assist in a supposedly lucrative business venture”.

You have been warned

2006-09-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

Elsewhere on the web, there are web sites dedicated to the crime situation in South Africa. The regime's lackeys say that they are scaring off foreign visitors. That point seems a little moot now, with official advice to tourists warning them of the dangers of a cheap holiday (this is due to the falling Rand) in South Africa. The best advice might be to stay at home.

The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned New Zealanders about the serious crime situation in South Africa. "Travellers should be vigilant at all times, especially at bus stations, airports (especially Johannesburg International Airport), as organised gangs are known to operate there," the ministry said on its website.

"In Johannesburg visitors should be especially vigilant in the central business district as muggings and carjackings are prevalent. Be very careful in city centres after dark when the risk of crime markedly increases."

"Caution should be exercised in Pretoria. You should be careful at all times in the city of Durban and by the beachfront. Carjackings are common in this city. Muggings can occur anywhere at any time."

"If visiting Kruger Park be aware of the danger of carjackings on roads leading into the park. Cape Town visitors who go to Table Mountain should only go in groups to minimise the risk of attack."

"Those wishing to visit the townships should only do so as part of an organised tour by a reputable company. It is recommended that you avoid large gatherings and demonstrations as they could quickly turn into violence," the ministry warned.

Highway might collapse due to city council meddling

2006-09-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

The minister may keep a low profile, but his department is hard at work. In typical South African fashion, somebody messed up big time. It is not mentioned who actually did the work in the first place. Probably some BEE contractor.

A city council clearing project in the Kuils River floodplain in Cape Town has gone wrong, causing a huge erosion donga that is having severe environmental impacts.

The donga, averaging four metres deep and eight metres wide over a distance of close to a kilometre, has also encroached to within a couple of metres of one of the concrete columns supporting the R300 freeway, and the bank at this point is being undercut.

Eskom powerlines are also in the firing line.

"We're not engineers, but we are concerned about this," said Arrie Serfontein of the Friends of the Kuils River conservation group, which has been trying to get the city to undertake remedial action.

They had two meetings earlier this year with senior city officials who also expressed concern and suggested that funds earmarked for post-fire landslip rehabilitation on Table Mountain that had proved unnecessary, could be used here.

But the funding never materialised, no rehabilitation work has been done and communication with the city suddenly dried up.

Since then, they had been unable to get any further response from the officials, from the councillor for the area or even from the mayor's office which they had approached as a last resort, Serfontein said.

The erosion started after the city employed a mechanical digger to dredge a channel from the bridge over the N1 down about 800-metres to the bridge over the river at Frans Conradie Drive that connects Bellville and Brackenfell.

The official reason for the work, first done last year and repeated this year, was that it was a flood-control measure that would lessen the chance of a flood in this section of the river.

But John Fincham, a medical researcher who lives nearby, describes this as "total nonsense".

"There is no need to canalise this section of the river because the risk of flooding is low. The profile of the valley here is wide and open, and there are no buildings or structures close to the river except for a flyover supporting the R300."

He estimates that the total volume of eroded material is more than 20 000 cubic metres, and that the erosion is causing major ecological problems.

These include the drying out of some of the pools, or "kuils" in Afrikaans, that give the river its name.

This is because the drainage channel has been cut in a straight line, changing the course of the river that used to flow through these pools that still support a functioning ecosystem.

Fincham said the artificially dug channel had been extended through a wetland "sponge" area this year.

"The results of this extended channel have included the severe erosion of the wetland sponge, resulting in the formation of this large donga," said Fincham.

The wetland was drying because of the lower water table caused by the donga being much deeper than the natural river course, he added.

The Friends group wants the city to restore the low water flow through the natural pool below the culvert over the N1 by means of gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks).

It also says an exit channel should be opened from the pool to help the natural flow.

"Action is also needed to stop erosion in the extended channel by building gabions every 50-metres," said Fincham.

"If there is severe flooding, there will be much more erosion, partly because the banks have not been stabilised.

"When this happens, one of the pylons supporting the R300 will be at risk."

About the minister

2006-09-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

Marthinus van Schalkwyk sold the NNP out to the ANC and was rewarded with a job as minister of Environmental Affairs. He keeps a very low profile as minister.

It is a case of “look busy and the President will forget that I am no longer of any use to him”. With numerous overseas trips, plenty of glitzy launches and an abundance of spin, it is clear that Van Schalkwyk has settled into his ministerial position.

The much heralded new Environmental Impact Assesment regulations were a disappointment, and do little to deal with the fundamental problems in the impact assessment profession, including the perceived lack of independence of practitioners. The response by the Department to the climate change threat has been methodical and well planned. The climate change conference in October was an excellent initiative, and was well received by scientists and civil society groups.

The Transfrontier Park with Zimbabwe and Mozambique has become the Minister’s Achilles’ heel. He has refused to acknowledge the problems in Gonarezhou National Park, the Zimbabwean component, which include land invasions and endemic poaching.

His own unique brand of denialism threatens Kruger Park, the South African component of the Transfrontier Park. This park is already facing problems. The concession fees collected in 2005 were half of what was collected in 2004, signalling problems with the concession agreements. There has also been an increase in poaching in the Kruger Park compared with recent years.

There is little evidence of the Department investigating and dealing with cases of alleged corruption in the fishing industry. The Department has been largely ineffective in dealing with abalone poaching which continues unabated along many portions of the coast.

Tourism remains a significant and growing component of the South African economy. International arrivals in general have been increasing although there has been a slight drop in European arrivals. There have been a number of high profile attacks on tourists, and the Minister will need to act to assure the protection of our visitors or risk undermining tourism growth.