Minutes December 2010 - St Francis Bay Residents Association

Residents Association Executive
The Association is faced with a serious problem. For the past two years Joe and Paddy have run it, virtually as a Citizens Advice Bureau, placing St. Francis Bay well ahead of other communities in the area. This has involved a huge amount of work, especially over valuations, which has been compounded by the ongoing and so far inconclusive Dispute with KM. Joe has now developed a serious heart condition which has compelled him and Paddy to withdraw from civic affairs at the end of the year.

Bennie Morsink is also standing down and Hilton Thorpe, whilst willing to serve on the Committee is not available as Chairman. This leaves a gap which is little short of a crisis. Unless more committed and competent people, who have no conflict of interest, become involved, the future of the Association is in jeopardy. We would welcome some input from residents, bearing in mind that we need to consider a complete infrastructure such as phones, computers, printer etc.

Power Outages
Kouga Municipality is involved with major electrical upgrades to the St. Francis Area, which has already involved 2 days of power outages. A third outage, affecting the whole Greater St. Francis Area, will be on Tuesday 7th December 2010 from 07h30 to 17h00 (alternative date 8th December)

AGM MEETINGS
SFB Residents Association AGM – 17h00 Village Hall 21st December 2010
Riparian Association AGM – 16h00 Village Hall 21st December 2010
SFB Kromme Trust AGM – 18h00 Heritage Centre 18 December 2010

The long awaited feedback meeting with the MEC for Local Government, Mr. Gqobana, materialised on 25th November and was little short of a fiasco. The Mayor arrived late and the MM and CFO not at all. A preliminary meeting scheduled for 15th Nov only occurred on 23rd and covered an unexpected agenda. Reports and Minutes which should have been released and studied prior to the meeting were only released at the meeting and contained minimal content. The SIU investigation into corruption and maladministration was incomplete, and the report would only be made available on 18th December.

Much of the meeting was a lecture by the MEC on cooperation between Rate Payers and the Local Authority. His only contribution was to state that all the outstanding matters had to be handled by KM without Provincial interference; that this was a flaw in the Municipal Systems Act (which was being amended); and that he detected racism in the FEKRRA approach – a point which was strongly contested by Joe Oosthuizen.

The one concession was that a Supplementary Valuation Roll would be permitted, giving an opportunity to all Rate Payers who did not previously object to their Valuation a further opportunity to do so. This was tempered by a requirement that responses be submitted by 3rd January 2011. We requested an extension to end of January and the relevant forms, which are currently not available. To cap it all the MEC Mr. Gqobana has now been moved elsewhere and we have a new MEC.

Concrete decisions need to be taken at our AGM on 21st September at the Village Hall at 5pm. It is absolutely vital that you attend this meeting or send a proxy so that we can reach some concensus on the way forward.

Click here to read the Minutes of the Meeting with the MEC.

The latest survey has just been completed on the beach and in spite of severe November storms, we still have a very positive sand gain compared to last year. Click here to read details.

The 2nd Draft EIA for Thyspunt will only be available in January 2011. Speculation still continues about whether Thyspunt will go ahead or not. EIA’s are in progress for Windfarms and there has been much discussion about this. A full feedback will be given at the AGM.

Police 1011 or 042 200 1817

Humansdorp Hospital 042 295 1100

(A Cash amount of R150 was paid into the Bank recently and we do not know who it was for – I could even be at fault because I have been so busy back and forth from the Hospital with Joe that I might have deposited and omitted to include the name, but I am not sure. – If you paid your subs in cash recently and your name does not appear on the list, please be in touch with me on contact@sfbresidents.org or 082 426 5060)