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Saturday 3 February 2024

West End hit Lungs comes to Camps Bay stage

Jazzara Jaslyn and Sanda Shandu star in Lungs. PICTURE: Claude Barnardo

 

Duncan MacMillan’s West End hit play Lungs will be presented by The Quickening Theatre company and Gloucester Productions from Wednesday February 7 to Saturday February 24 at Theatre On The Bay in Camps Bay.

A young urban couple consider whether or not to have a child in today’s toxic and insecure environment, beset by global warming and political unrest.

The play is directed by Bianca Amato, with Jazzara Jaslyn and Sanda Shandu as the couple.

There is an age restriction of 13. Performances are Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, with Saturday matinees at 3pm.

Tickets cost from R160 to R250 through Webtickets or the theatre box-office on 021 438 3301

By 
Staff Reporter 

Friday 2 February 2024

Excellent water quality results refute Camps Bay misinformation, says City CPT

 



The latest water quality sampling results for Camps Bay are excellent as per analysis by the independent SABS Laboratory, says the City in a media release.

It said samples taken on Friday January 19, and released on Monday evening, January 22, refute misinformation on social media about the beach and its coastal water quality.

The City said over the past few weeks a social media user has been spreading misinformation that lighter patches along the shoreline at Camps Bay and Green Point are indicative of sewage

Eddie Andrews, the City’s deputy mayor and Mayco member for spatial planning and environment, said on January 19, the City undertook an open and transparent water quality sampling test at Camps Bay in the white discoloured area, and off Granger Bay. This is where the same kelp mucus was seen that was presented as sewage on social media.

The City said it invited a representative from the Camps Bay community, an independent civil engineer, and an independent marine scientist, to witness the sampling and the community representative even went with to deliver the six water samples at the independent SABS Laboratory for analysis.

“We received the results from the SABS for all six samples on the evening of Monday, January 22. As expected, the results for all samples are excellent by global standards of coastal water quality,” said Mr Andrews.

The water samples were analysed by the SABS Lab for the number of enterococci per 100ml, the World Health Organization’s Gold Standard for water quality analysis. The cut-off is 180 enterococci per 100ml. In some cases nothing was detected in the samples, and in some the count was as low as 1.

“Coastal water quality sampling in Cape Town is done more often than at any other coastal city in South Africa. The results and supportive data are published on our website, and are accessible to all as part of our commitment to transparency about the water quality along our coastline,” Mr Andrews said.

He said the natural breakdown of kelp, algae and phytoplankton in Cape Town’s waters is very common and both have an unpleasant smell and discolouration. “Foam on the water’s surface or on the beach is as a result of the organic matter breaking down, not sewage. I can therefore assure all that the white colouration at Camps Bay is not caused by any human pollution, but is most likely calcium carbonate leaching from the beach and nearshore environment,” Mr Andrews said.

The City’s latest coastal water quality sampling results show excellent water quality for Camps Bay, and across key recreational beaches and nodes. The results can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/3Z5EwDY

 

Sunday 21 January 2024

Camps Bay Blue Flag lowered and raised again 24 hours later

Rags and fats were to blame for the clogged sewage and resultant spill at Camps Bay beach on Saturday, according to the City of Cape Town.

Eyewitnesses say the mess flowed onto the popular beach.

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa was questioned regarding awarding Blue Flag certification to the beach last year (Questions about Cape Town’s Blue Flag beaches, October 26, 2023), much to the dismay of environmentalists.

The City of Cape Town was notified of the inconvenience and cleaned up the debris within hours of the incident.

The Blue flag was lowered and raised again during this time.

“The sewage leak was reported to me at 11.37am by a member of the public. I immediately made contact with the City of Cape Town and instructed them to lower the flag. The City confirmed the flag was lowered as of 12.35pm and indicated that teams would be responding to the incident. The blockage was cleared on the same day at around 6.13pm,” said Tevya Lotriet, the senior sustainability programme manager for WESSA.

“After the City cleared the blockage and contaminated sand, the cause was confirmed to be rags (foreign objects) as well as fats blocking the line. The sewage did not reach the ocean. The flag was raised again the next day (Sunday) during the lifeguard operational hours,” she said.

The City’s Mayoral committee member for water and sanitation, Zahid Badroodien confirmed the blockage and the cause.

“The spill did not reach the ocean. The cause of the blockage was foreign objects in the system, namely rags and fats,” said Dr Badroodien.

He added that residents are reminded that they can help prevent such sewer blockages and overflows by:

• Disposing of unwanted materials using the appropriate solid waste collections and disposal services.

• Ensuring only human waste, toilet paper and grey water be disposed via sinks and toilets in homes and communities. It is illegal for residents to place any another materials into the system because it causes overflows due to blockage.

• Putting a strainer in the sink to catch food or other waste before it goes down the drain and creates blockages.

• Wiping cooking fats, oil or grease off the pan, and don’t pour it down the drain.

• Not flushing nappies and sanitary products, they absorb water and expand, which causes blockages.

• Checking that rainwater gutters don’t flow into the sewer system, as it overloads the system.

• Visiting the City’s drop-off facilities to dispose of recyclables, electronics, garage waste and builder’s rubble.

Mark Jackson, an environmental activist and film-maker, says that this was not a once-off problem as he receives complaints about sewage spills via Facebook and WhatsApp regularly.

“I do hear of sewage spills every other week and the mess does reach the beach, so people have seen it and they do speak about it. It seems that the City’s sewage system is under capacity and the City needs to invest in improving it,” Mr Jackson said.

“Today (Tuesday, January 16), I was notified of another sewage mess on the beach, and Dr Badroodien is correct in recommending that people should not dispose of wet wipes. They (the City) should consider implementing a by-law prohibiting the use of these wet wipes. I must just add that despite objections, plans are in the works to build a 100-bed hotel that will add to this problem,” he said, referring to the development of the hotel on Beach Road.

https://bit.ly/4bDbsuF

 

Monday 4 December 2023

CBCRA AFS 2022



























CBCRA AGM

 

Logo

REMINDER

CBCRA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Please join us at the CBCRA AGM 2023
TONIGHT Monday 04 December 2023

17h30 - registration

18h00 - start of the meeting

MATTERS TO BE DISCUSSED TONIGHT INCLUDE:

  • The unlawfully approved plans for the 100-room hotel on the Beachfront and the legal battle by CBCRA

    Guest speaker: Dr Leon van Rensburg

  • How the City claim that the 55 million litres of raw sewerage that it pumps into the Atlantic seaboard is healthy

  • Dealing with the homeless

  • Camps Bay cleaning

  • The establishment of a CID in Camps Bay

VENUE
Camps Bay High School Hall, Lower Kloof Rd, Camps Bay

Refreshments will be served.


Thursday 16 November 2023

CID Voting

A friendly reminder that if you haven’t yet voted for the Camps Bay CID, please do so here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/


We need the votes in as soon as possible to have any chance of establishing the CID next year, otherwise it may be delayed until 2025 or later. With CBCSI ceasing to exist next year, this would leave us with no community-wide security solution for at least a year.


Thank you for your support. Vote here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/


*CID Voting Update*
As of 9am on 16 November, 9.5 days after voting opened, the CID has crossed the halfway mark towards the required number of 1,724 yes votes.
So far,
1. 956 votes have been received, of which 899 are positive and 57 are negative
2. This means that 94% of votes received are positive
3. A similar percentage of people who were undecided in pre-vote polling have voted yes
4. Over a third of people who indicated during pre-vote polling that they would vote no have gone on to vote yes instead
5. For people who indicated during pre-vote polling that they would vote yes, less than 2% have changed their minds
While these results are very encouraging, there is still a lot of hard work to do if we are to meet our mid-December target date to reach 1,724 votes, and implement the CID on 1 July next year.
If you’re a property owner and haven’t voted yet, please do so today. Vote online here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/
Thank you.
CBCID Steering Committee

Wednesday 15 November 2023

CBCRA takes building matter to court

 


The construction has been going on for months now
but the ratepayers are taking the matter to court.
The Camps Bay and Clifton Ratepayers’ Association (CBCRA) are going to court at the end of November to oppose a hotel development in Camps Bay.

A five-star hotel designed by Scott and Partners is under way on Erf 3349 on Victoria Road.

The Place of the Bay hotel once stood on the site “Ratepayers ready to halt beachfront development, March 9, 2023”.

In a statement, the CBCRA accused the City of Cape Town of bias.

“The City has now clearly shown its bias in this matter and its slavish desire to assist unwanted and undesirable development in our world-renowned village.

“In a sworn affidavit before the High Court, a senior City planning official finally conceded that it had incorrectly approved the plans which permit the development of this monster development, which will forever destroy Camps Bay’s iconic beachfront.

“The CBCRA had pointed out this illegality in the plans, relating to the height of the building (15m instead of the permitted 10m) months ago but, somehow, it took this long for the City planners to actually ‘notice’ the problem.

“However, the City is undeterred and has accepted and approved “rider” plans from the developer, to ‘overcome’ this problem. Unsurprisingly, it did the approval in a couple of weeks, rather than waiting time for planning approval offered to the general public, which is months or years.

“Legally, it is not allowed to do this. Once the City has approved plans, it becomes functus officio and cannot in any way amend the plans, as this is the jurisdiction of the courts. The City knows this well and has, over the years, used this legal dictate to tell this ratepayer association (as well as many others in Cape Town) that, even though it concedes a planning problem in some approval, it cannot move to change it as only the High Court can do so (with the associated costs).

“Suddenly, with a very wealthy developer (the site cost R230m) who is unlikely to be too charmed with the City’s ineptitude, the law seems to have magically changed for certain well-paid City officials.

“Further, in a similar case some years ago, which also involved the CBCRA, the presiding judge ruled that a rider plan cannot rescue the unlawfulness of the principal approval (Para 15 of Camps Bay Residents Ratepayers Association and Others v XXX and Others (2005/2009) [2009] ZAWCHC 30; 2009 (6) SA 190 (WCC) (24 March 2009).

“The CBCRA further alleges that the City planners, at the behest of the developer – and behind closed doors and with no public participation – simply changed a decision of the original planning approval to accommodate the developer. This relates to allowing 49 parking bays in lieu of the 120 required.”

The CBCRA said it is certainly not opposed to development that is “sensible, sensitive and sustainable – and within the law”.

“The City has desperately attempted to delay this matter and managed to get the court date of 18 October postponed to 27 November 2023, all to allow the developer to build further and possibly render our legal application nugatory.

“The developer’s builder has worked illegal hours, abused the public resources of the pedestrian pavements, allows its vehicles to block traffic and drive in the wrong direction in one-way streets, has blocked an entire street without any permit and even destroyed the root system of the iconic tree at the corner of The Fairway and Victoria Road, leading to the felling of that landmark in Camps Bay’s history.”

City of Cape Town spokesperson, Luthando Tyhalibongo, said the plans are compliant and responded to the CBCRA.

“The ratepayer association’s attack on the City and its officials is unfounded. In its High Court review application, the association makes misleading and false claims of ‘unlawfulness’ such as (CBCRA chairman Chris) Willemse indicating that the reduction in parking is ‘blatantly unlawful’. That was, as Mr Willemse is aware, however, done due to an amendment to the law in 2019. The 2019 reduction in parking requirements for hotels was publicly advertised.

“The City has refuted all of the association’s review grounds. One error however required correction as the City found that a small part of the fifth-storey, which has not yet been built, would have breached the height limit. This was corrected on 17 October 2023 with an amendment to the building plan. As that part of the hotel had not been built, the height limit was therefore never breached.”