SAVE VETCH’S ASSOCIATION
NEWS UPDATE JUNE 2010

First and foremost, we’d like to thank most sincerely all who have so generously contributed to our fund and registered as supporters of the Save Vetch’s Association. Without your support, we cannot succeed. It is as simple as that. This is going to be a long drawn out process and funding the legal battle will continue to be most crucial. We appeal to all our supporters to spread the message amongst your circle of friends, particularly to current Vetch’s Beach users, who really are the ones that stand to lose the most, should the small craft harbour go ahead, and encourage them to support this cause.

A huge thank you must also go out to our legal team, who have worked tirelessly round the clock, working many long hours into the night, studying and collating hundreds of documents.  Our legal team consists of Senior Advocates Peter Rowan and Doug Shaw, (the most senior in the country) Junior Advocate Andrea Gabriel and attorney, Michael Jackson of Cox Yeats. This is most certainly a formidable team.

This update has long been overdue, but to be fair to the committee, the last few months have been extremely hectic for all of us, in helping prepare the founding affidavit of the review procedure. This document was finally submitted to the High Court in February 2010 and consisted of no less than 89 pages of arguments and supported by literally hundreds of pages of annexures. This is not the final affidavit, and once we receive other documents we have requested from the Department of Environmental Affairs, we shall begin to compile the final set of papers. Once that is served and the respondents’ answering affidavit is received, a court date will be announced.

The developers (DPDC) in the meantime will no doubt be eager to commence with construction of the small craft harbour as soon as they possibly can. They have indicated in legal papers served onto the Durban Paddle Ski Club that they intend constructing a parking basement bordering on the high-water mark running northwards from the base of the North Pier and covering an area the size of 3 rugby fields. To do that they first need to construct a revetment (sea dyke) 25 metres seawards of the high-water mark, to prevent the basement from flooding. Initially, they stated that this sea wall had to be built in one piece running from the base of the North Pier across the entire Vetch’s Beach up to the base of Vetch’s Pier. They stressed the point that it could not be built piecemeal in various stages. This action would have no doubt prevented any craft from launching throughout the entire construction period, jeopardising the functions of all the clubs on the beach. Furthermore, this would have also made the entire beach a no-go area for the public. These concerns were raised by the various clubs and DPDC conceded that the sea wall could then be built in 3 stages after all. Construction was then set to begin on 1st of June 2010.

However, DPDC do not have ownership of the seabed, nor do they have authorization to begin with any construction below the high-water mark until all land ownership issues have been resolved, according to the Record of Decision it was granted in February 2009. Save Vetch’s Association has communicated these facts to DPDC and have informed them of our intention to interdict, should they attempt to commence with any such construction. To complicate the issue further, there is much uncertainty regarding the legal boundary of DPDC’s property, which is said to be the 1957 high-water mark. As we all know, this mark is forever being altered by the municipal sand pumping scheme and as the municipality is a 50% shareholder of DPDC, we have a situation where the developer can manipulate its own boundary. We believe this to be unacceptable and have raised these concerns with the Surveyor General in Pietermaritzburg, who has undertaken to resurvey the area and establish the official high-water mark.

As we all know, land ownership of the area below the high-water mark has not been resolved.  This contentious issue was complicated further several years ago by an opinion by a DPDC-appointed advocate, Norman Brauteseth, who advised them that it was Portnet property. We did not accept this opinion and raised this issue with the then National Minister of Environmental Affairs, Marthinus van Schalkwyk. He confirmed that the seabed was, as we believed it to be, public property. Earlier this year it had been reported by the Durban Ski Boat Club that DPDC had applied to parliament for a 99 year lease of the land below the high-water mark. We have just received confirmation from the Minister of Environmental Affairs that this report was not true as no such application has in fact been lodged.

During the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) period, the assignment changed hands 3 times before being finally approved in February 2009. We queried this procedure and requested minutes of meetings held to make such decisions. Needless to say, we were told that minutes of these meetings could not be found. Our suspicions were raised further when rumours began circulating that the small craft harbour had been turned down by the first 2 assessors and passed on until it was finally approved. When we served our founding affidavit to the High Court earlier in February, we again requested minutes of these meetings amongst various other documents. To date these minutes have not been made available, but they have somehow furnished us with the first assessment report, which was never released, rejecting the small craft harbour as it was in their opinion, socially and environmentally unacceptable. This is a huge boost to our cause as it confirms our suspicions and basically agrees with the views of all the appellants of the small craft harbour, which were raised from the very beginning. In our opinion, huge political pressure could only have been applied to the department to have had the decision reversed. All these points will be included in our final affidavit and raised in court.

One person that has taken our battle to heart is Gordon Spalding, who has undertaken to paddle unaided from Kosi Bay to Kei Mouth in an effort to raise funds for the Save Vetch’s Association. We are truly humbled by the commitment of this man and for once we can find no words that can truly express our gratitude. His epic trip began on 22 May with Gordon managing to cover over 40 kilometres per day in his first 2 days. Day 3 saw him paddling 62 kilometres and a mammoth 82 kilometres on the fourth. Apart from being given the once over by an inquisitive great white, he made it safely to Vetch’s Beach on 30 May. After being shore-bound for a complete day at Bazley due to heavy surf, he made up time by padding another marathon 82 kms in one day all the way to Port Edward! On his second day on the Wild Coast somewhere between Msikaba and Mbotyi, he collided head-on with the sardine shoals and had an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. He spent virtually the entire day surrounded by thousands of leaping dolphins, sharks and breaching whales whilst being continually dive-bombed by millions of gannets and gulls. He managed to capture some of this wild action on film and we look forward to seeing the documentary when he finally returns.

After being shore-bound for two days at Hole in the Wall due to a south-westerly gale, he finally made it to Kei Mouth on 12 June an approximate distance of over 800 kilometres. Between Dwesa and Wavecrest, he had a visit form a rather large zambezi shark and had to switch on his anti-shark repellent. Once again he witnessed several whales breaching close to the boat and had the privilege of seeing a rare mako shark exploding out of the water.

Gordon has also managed to raise awareness to the Vetch’s Beach saga at every opportunity on his trip and the support has been quite overwhelming. We’d like to thank all those that responded to Gordon’s crusade and contributed to our trust fund. We’d also like to specifically thank the Zinkwazi Ski Boat Club for the assistance they gave Gordon on his stopover and for the extremely generous financial contribution, even though they are not at all affected by the proposed development. We were all truly humbled.
Another person that has supported our cause substantially is Allan Jackson, who has published a book on the history of Durban and runs a most interesting website www.fad.co.za  Allan has kindly donated a stunning fully-framed and mounted panoramic photo of Vetch’s Beach, to be raffled off and raise funds for Save Vetch’s Association. Details will soon be posted on www.savevetchs.co.za

There will be more specialist reports posted on our website concentrating specifically on the various water sports (sailing, ski boating, paddling, surfing, etc) that stand to be affected by the proposed development. These will be written by members of the committee that have an intimate knowledge of the relevant activities and local knowledge of the area concerned. We invite all the current beach users as well as the rest of the public to visit our site and make comments and suggestions.
Finally, just a quick reminder that the action taken by the Save Vetch’s Association is an extremely courageous one and is the last legal avenue left to oppose the small craft harbour. It is going to need all the support it can get and we urge the public to get involved and give us the best chance for success. For many of us, the ocean has given so much pleasure in so many ways for such a long time, and it is only right for us to give something back to ensure our children and their children also have the opportunity to enjoy it too. It is not much to ask.