Bea Whittaker — few have worked harder for the village

Bea Whittaker has boundless energy and is another stalwart of the various civil society organisations in the town.  Today she is the independent member of the ward committee, which means she can’t serve on the committee of any organisation.

But that doesn’t stop her getting involved in anything that will benefit Stanford.

Bea and Basil Whittaker came to Stanford in 1994.  “Basil had a plot at De Kelders and we stopped at Stanford en route, admiring the vista to the mountains.  I was working at Parliamentary Services in Cape Town and we were thinking about a home for retirement.  We took photographs and came back on holiday, and bought our first house on the Market Square.”

Then Marlene (Marlene’s Properties and another stalwart) told Bea that Stanford House was looking for a couple to manage the hotel.  Impulsively they resigned from their demanding jobs — and the holiday home became a permanent home.  In 1995 she joined Marlene and Mariana Esterhuizen on Stanford’s tourism committee, as they wanted to put Stanford on the map.  “It was much more informal then.  Things just got done… it was much easier before the establishment of the cumbersome Overstrand Municipality.  Now, municipalities are ruled and regulated to inertia,” she says.

In the mean time, in 1996, the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) started the Hermanus Water Conservation Project and Bea, having just started her Milkwood Communications business and having worked for the Department before moving to Stanford and a MBA behind her name, was the ideal person to appoint as project manager for the four-year project.  It achieved worldwide recognition as the first successful municipal water conservation and demand management project in the world.  She consulted on various other similar projects in South Africa.  Her project management and communications skills also took her to Ethiopia in 2000, where the World Bank asked her to draw up a communications strategy for the Addis Ababa water authority – an experience and country never to forget.

But between managing and running her own company with demanding projects, she still had (and still has!) time for Stanford.  In 1996 she joined the Stanford Conservation Trust, which was established by Peter de Villiers, David Evans and Mariana in 1991.  Stanford’s core was proclaimed a Conservation Area through the efforts of these three Stanford stalwarts.

Next she raised money from the DWA and the Department of Agriculture and more than 70ha of alien vegetation was cleared in the area around The Eye and next to the river in a four year project, employing more than 70 people.

Bea became chair of the Heritage Committee and oversaw the publishing of the Stanford Style booklet.  When Stanford turned 150, the committee arranged an entire weekend of heritage events which brought people in from far and wide.  The weekend also raised funds for the Historical Stanford on Foot brochure, another initiative of Bea and her committee. (She also helped SJ du Toit with her books on Stanford.)  In the last year of her tenure as chair she obtained R80,000 from the Roland & Leta Hill Fund for the restoration of the historic Anglican church.  With the church turning 150 this year, she is arranging another black tie event for 20 July 2013 to raise more funds – this time to fix the thatch of the church hall.

She and Basil have for years been involved with the Wandelpad, the brainchild of Mariana Esterhuizen and David Evans, alongside the river.  Twice a week the Wandelpad committee manages a job creation team funded by the Department of Environmental Affairs.  The “Green Team”, as they are fondly known, has worked wonders along the river, and is regarded as the best team in the Overstrand Municipality.  She believes that the riverfront still has to achieve its full potential.

She makes the point that any organisation is only as successful as the person steering it.  “He or she must be a lateral thinker who sees opportunities.”

“Stanford people are lovely people,” she says.  “We may sometimes fight like mad, yet when trouble brews we stick together like glue.  But there is a problem with the village.  It attracts people that are exceptionally successful in previous lives, but too gentlemanly to put up a fight with authorities.  We need more people who will stick their necks out and get involved.”

Bea wants to get the village going… “but there’s no CEO who acts and gets things done.”

She also bemoans the lack of communication.  She writes about ward committee meetings and other issues in every issue of River Talk — the local monthly magazine, which primarily reaches the more affluent residents.  But there are many committees which don’t provide any public feedback, and “people want to know what’s happening without being a member of the organisation.”  Tourism, Ratepayer and Conservation Trust could share much more.

Some might find Bea pushy or bossy, and I might have been a little intimidated by her had I not discovered that she’s Arie Burggraaf’s sister.  Then everything fell into place.  I got to know Arie in 1986 when he was appointed to chair a committee to look at opening up SA harbours for commercial development — one outcome of the 1985 Pierhead Festival I organised which regained public access to Cape Town’s docks  for the first time since 1966 and the Suez ‘crisis’.

Arie went on to become a director of the V&A Waterfront company and I worked with him until 1999.  (The Waterfront story published on CapeInfo is actually based on a paper I prepared for Arie.)  Some people found Arie pushy… but the Waterfront would never have happened without him.  He saw opportunities and ways around obstacles.  And he was tenacious.

Stanford doesn’t know how lucky it is to have someone of Bea’s calibre and commitment.

Of course, one picks up the inevitable grumbles in Stanford as one does in any town.  But there’s no denying — which is evident to anyone driving through the area — that few municipal areas are as well-maintained.  Basic service delivery here is of a very high standard but then there’s little excuse for getting that wrong.  What is more difficult is having a shared vision of where everything is headed.

Stanford’s lifeblood is tourism which is derived from its status a heritage village.  Destroy its architectural fabric and it will lose all appeal.

A visit to the local municipal office is where my rosy-eyed optimism started going very awry.  Writing this became a challenge and it’s ended up being a very different story to what was envisaged at the outset.  But all one can do is “tell it as it is…”

The meeting with the municipality’s area manager for Stanford was bizarre beyond the extreme.  It’s the stuff that would be worthy of a ludicrous satire.  A delightful person and probably a capable manager of basic service delivery, the very personal opinions expressed belonged to the dark ages of municipal management.  When someone acknowledges having no love of historical buildings and no vision for Stanford in 20 years’ time, yearning rather for the boeredorp (farm village) it once was, one is filled with a sense of hopelessness.

So that’s one interview that won’t be published!  For which the Municipality is very grateful!

Nicolette Botha-Guthrie, Overstrand mayor

I met the mayor — Nicolette Botha-Guthrie — for the first time at a StanfordInfo function.  I was impressed.  I was less impressed by the mayoral committee member responsible for finance & economic development (which includes tourism), Ben Solomon.  The three of us were standing around a table when I commented that their marketing department’s strategy to get the 90,000 day-visitors to Gansbaai to spend more time in the area was unbelievably poor.  Ben responded gruffly that I should never have received the strategy because it’s a work-in-progress.  “How can you have a work-in-progress for 10 years, because that’s how long day-trippers have been visiting Gansbaai?” I asked.  “Somebody isn’t doing their job.”  With a dismissive wave, he indicated he was not prepared to discuss this further.  So how’s that for accountability?

Nicolette said I should come and see her so I made an appointment for some weeks later.  Public opinion in the area rates her very highly, and I think that Overstrand and the towns are very lucky to have an executive mayor as committed to her job, and the area.

Nicolette’s parking bay at the municipal offices is always one the first to be occupied and one of the last to be vacated — she works very hard!  She says she never turns down an opportunity to speak at public functions and she meets with everybody, all the time.  She is a passionate, accessible communicator.

She is a mayor for all citizens, she states clearly, not only the DA voters who made her mayor.  “We learnt from when the ANC was in power and shut us out of all decisions.  We make sure that everybody is involved,” she says.

When I mentioned my concern that started about 10 years ago about the municipality’s corporate culture she jumped up and said, “We have a vision!” fetching a large report.  She plonked down the Integrated Development Plan down — “her bible” — and said, “Our vision is to be a centre of excellence!”

Then I asked about an Urban Design Framework to guide development, especially in sensitive areas like Stanford.  “We’ve got that too,” she said, “it’s our Growth Management Framework by Urban Dynamics.”

Well… a Growth Management Framework (GMP) is not an Urban Design Framework and, looking at their website, Urban Dynamics doesn’t appear to have any professional urban designers on their professional team (although they offer it as a service).  Portion of  the report was prepared by ACG Architects but all I got back from a query asking if they have any professionally-qualified urban designers on their team was a read receipt.

The GMP’s chapter on Stanford cannot be described as a vision – it is a glorified zoning plan. It appears that nobody in the community was consulted.  Not the Ratepayers, the Conservation Trust, tourism, nor business leaders or any of the local expertise. It therefore does not have any credibility, and is so broad in scope that its usefulness is extremely dubious. The Stanford community have been asking for a local Spatial Framework Plan to guide development only to be told that there are no funds. It would be interesting to know what the GMP cost.

Why’s this important?  Urban Design is very complex and critically important.  It is a visionary skill and talent and that’s not something a planner — with no design skills –  can tackle.  Few architects have the capability either.

What is even more serious, says one professional, is that there is no comprehensive environmental management plan for the Overstrand.  Houses continue to be approved in floodplains, fire prone mountain slopes, wetlands, sensitive coastal zones, rock-fall hazard areas, etc. putting people’s lives at risk, stretching emergency services, disrupting ecosystems and threatening water catchments – something the GMP did not think it was necessary to address.

Before I left Nicolette, she asked if I would note all my points in an email so they could be attended to.  She and Fanie Krige, the communications manager, received that the following morning.  A day later Fanie told me it had been forwarded to the relevant managers and he hoped to let me have written replies within a few days.  Not a single written reply was received in the ensuing two weeks… Then, after receiving the draft of this story, he wrote to say he had received written responses and forwarded them to me.  The relevant points have been added here.

My next meeting was with John Simson,Manager: Building Control Services, to find out about why property owners who want to preserve and enhance Stanford’s traditional streetscapes – its biggest asset – are penalised.

Many property owners want to do the right thing – respecting the street architecture in Stanford by building closer to the street than the arbitrary building line permitted – but face a problem. The local Heritage Committee may whole-heartedly endorsed the plan, and Heritage Western Cape will approve it in one day, but Municipality’s Planning Department required an additional R1400 application fee and eight months to approve the plan – to approve something that should have been the norm in the first place!

The problem lies with the new Integrated Zoning Scheme, which standardised all the individual zoning schemes that existed for each town and village, as if they are all uniformly the same, regardless of the unique environmental and cultural heritage conditions of each settlement. It is a result of the same inane thinking used by paid outside consultants who know little of the area.  It was a retrogressive step, now requiring overlay zoning schemes to accommodate the specific requirements of each town, and with which there has been no visible progress.  It’s blundering bureaucracy!

Before the Stanford Zoning scheme was proclaimed in 2004, the historical building line was regarded as the norm.  One still had to write to ask that Land Use Planning Ordinance’s general building rules be waived, but it was a letter-process rather than a formal application with costs involved.  The decision was then made by the Stanford council.

John was very helpful but felt my question needed to be directed to the planning department rather, because this would be addressed — in part — by the new zoning plan, due between April and June this year.  But… he said the special zoning overlay Stanford has been asking for since 2003 hasn’t been prepared and, when it is, won’t resolve the issue I raise.

The next two interviews were the least productive, and seemed to take place with an irritated reception and an almost aggressive/defensive atmosphere.

First was Riaan Kuchar, Senior Manager: Town Planning and Property Administration.  He confirmed what John had told me and said that several overlay zones will have to be prepared.  This could drag on for years.

Yes, legislation is a straitjacket but there must be smarter ways of doing things.  I think back to the V&A Waterfront’s Package of Plans approach that I helped with.  And I remembered that when Helen Zille became Western Cape Education MEC many years ago, she asked for a lawyer in her office – not to enforce laws but to find ways of doing things faster and better within the law.  Is it any wonder that she is admired so?

Riaan made the point that he can’t think of another municipality that has done as much to address environmental issues of every kind for its diverse natural and built environments.  He used the example of their appointment of a heritage architect.  I corrected him, saying they appointed a heritage planner, which he conceded to.  One doesn’t expect this kind of muddled thinking from someone in his position.

He is a planner by profession, having studied at Potchefstroom University (now University of Northwest).  He agreed when I said that what’s taught up there is very different to the planning taught at locally.  (I experienced the archaic, rule-book approach of Transvaal planners from the Department of Community Development when I worked at the Mitchells Plain Planning Unit in the 1970s.)

I get an ongoing sense that Overstrand does things by the book… with little initiative, innovation and transparency.  It’s a route that costs ratepayers dearly in consultant’s fees.

Stanford does not have a parking problem – it has too few feet and too few cars to support the few businesses in town.

My biggest concern is the way that parking is being handled in Stanford.  Some years after someone opened a collectibles shop operating out of a garage alongside the house where they let out one room, they received the demand to provide six on-site parking bays!

This is more than a little absurd when; firstly, the municipality has no parking plan for the municipal area.  And secondly, the municipal parking area was sold to a developer who was erecting a commercial building!  The municipal offices do not comply with their own parking requirements, not the least being the provision of disabled parking.  Riaan conceded this.

The parking area referred to should never have been sold as it was a golden opportunity to create a paved village square – a ‘heart’ right in the centre of Stanford.  It was a bungled opportunity because of the lack of a vision and an urban design plan for Stanford.  I’ve been told that this sale is being investigated by the Public Protector.

Stanford does not have a parking problem – it has too few feet and too few cars to support the few businesses in town. If you look down the main street during a week day, you can usually count the number of cars on one hand. It is ridiculous to apply parking standards used in Cape Town or Hermanus to a small country town – another example of the standardised zoning scheme that implies one-size-fits-all, and a mindless bureaucracy that imposes it.

The municipality’s current policy will destroy all hope for a strong and environmentally-attractive retail core in Stanford, and flies against all sensible urban design practices.  Compare what Overstrand Municipality wants for Stanford to what happens in Franschhoek, which thrives!

Some years ago, local architect Guy Whittle and a few others approached the municipality with a proposal for parking around Market Square, which is within easy walking distance of the whole village.  What had happened to this, I asked?

A proposal to upgrade Stanford’s Market Square with parking in the two roads on either side.

One of the comments received after the draft story was sent to the Municipality was from Schalk van der Merwe, Municipal Town Planner for Gansbaai and Stanford:“The redevelopment of Market Square is contentious as the residents are not in agreement about what must happen. There is no plan on the table at the moment as all previous plans were rejected by the community. The idea to develop parking around Market Square, however, is supported by the municipality.”  Any change is contentious and it takes leadership and vision to drive change.  V&A Waterfront or St George’s Mall would never have happened without leadership.  Does Overstrand have inspired municipal leadership?

Back to Riaan: It will still go ahead at some or other stage, but the parking there will be for municipal use and not to alleviate the obligations of businesses.  The municipality does allow businesses to purchase parking spaces remote from their premises but, Riaan commented rather smugly, “I can’t see any Stanford businesses paying what it will cost.”

I found his attitude unhelpful and unlikely to ever realise positive and practical outcomes for Stanford.  The last straw was when he said, “So go and tell your buddies back in Stanford…” which I found completely unprofessional.  Maybe it’s a cultural thing.

Then it was Solomzi (Solly) Madikane, Director: Economic Development.  He was just leaving the office when I arrived at the appointed time, and would have missed him had I not been accompanied by Fanie Krige.  Unfortunately, this was the only meeting that Fanie did not sit in on.

To get things rolling, I asked him what the main focus areas were for Overstrand’s local economic development.  “Why do you want to know?” he asked.  “I’m not answering that.  It wasn’t in the list of points you raised with the mayor.”  I wondered if this was going to be a five-minute interview.  Surely that’s a perfectly normal scene-setting question to someone in his position?

So I moved on to criticisms of any evidence of the Overstrand DMO’s marketing plan.  “I agree with them,” he said, “there is no plan.”  How can a marketing department that has been in existence for ±3 years with a person in charge for ±18 months not have a marketing plan?  When will there be a marketing plan?  “We’ve asked for funding in the next budget so we’ll have a marketing plan after June,” was the answer.

Surely the marketing plan is the first thing one tackles and, surely, that’s where all one’s budget goes when you start?  I wonder what Alan Winde (provincial minister of Finance and Economic Development) will have to say to this.

Given that there is no marketing plan for tourism businesses in the Overstrand, I thought this was the right time to raise the issue of the business property tax that accommodation establishments attract in the Overstrand.  This is not the norm in the Western Cape!

In the written replies received after the municipality the draft story, Ben Solomon stated “This approach to B&B’s and guesthouses is not unique to Overstrand Municipality and you will find it almost at all other municipalities.”  So I wrote back to ask “which municipalities?” and received the following:  “We do not have so much interaction with other local municipalities to answer the question fully, but a quick scan of other municipalities’ websites indicated that similar policies are followed at least at Mossel Bay, Saldanha Bay and Oudtshoorn.”

So how can he make that statement if he can’t back it up with facts?  We’re checking this out (and compiling a comparative list of rates and service charges by municipalities) and I think we’ll find that his “almost all” is hopelessly incorrect.  What we have learnt is that guest houses in Mossel Bay have formed a trust and are taking their municipality to court on this issue.  And it seems that Afriforum will be taking up the battle at a national level.

Overstrand’s rating policy for accommodation establishments was introduced when a standalone Destination Marketing Organisation was established in 2007, as a way to pay for it.  The DMO was subsequently abolished and the marketing function taken over by the municipality.

My question to Solly was, “Does the business rating of accommodation properties benefit job creation and investment?”  He was unambiguous in his answer that it does not, and went on to say that the business rating for accommodation establishments had been phased out.  “No, it hasn’t,” I replied.  “Then why has nobody complained to me,” he answered, and undertook to make enquiries.

So, Overstrand property owners who provide accommodation services, the municipal property rates policy is due to be reviewed very soon.  I suggest you write to the mayor, your ward councillor, your newspaper and anybody else you can think of to appeal against being treated differently to most other property owners in the Western Cape.  And send This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. too so he knows your views!

In the end, the meeting ran the full hour and we left on far better terms than when we started.

So, is Overstrand a centre of excellence?  Not by a long chalk.  Tourism, the area’s primary economic activity, is not being managed – it can’t be without a marketing plan.  And the vast expenditure on consultant’s reports and the awards received does not guarantee excellence.  I experienced an unusual – by 2013 standards – culture at the municipality.  It’s archly-conservative and relies on its rules more than common sense.  It’s lost the pragmatic “boer maak ’n plan”-for-the-public-good approach that characterised the small towns which were absorbed into the larger municipality.  Yes, municipal regulations are far more stringent but a metro like Cape Town shows what can be done by working with local citizens.  If Cape Town’s City Hall and maybe even the Company Gardens can be leased to the Cape Town Partnership, why can’t Stanford’s Market Square be leased to the Stanford Conservation Trust?  Why not work with citizens rather than over them?

For an area so richly endowed in natural and heritage assets, a Peer Review (as was employed at the V&A Waterfront) of the municipality’s plans and vision will help achieve excellence.

Now that’s something that would strengthen Mayor Nicolette Botha-Guthrie’s vision for the Overstrand as a centre of excellence!

***

“Sunshine is the best antiseptic” is a well-known quote from US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and refers to the benefits of openness and transparency.  The citizens of Stanford and their municipality don’t appear to be in the same book, let alone on the same page.

So let the sun shine in… please share your views; hopefully Overstrand Municipality will respond and share more of theirs… in the public domain.

Apologies to anyone who submitted comments before 9am on April 1 — a bug prevented comments being added and they were lost. This has been rectified.  If your comments were lost, please add them again.

Martin Ranger – contributing to civil society

One of the advantages desirable small towns have is the quality of new residents they attract.  Energetic retirees and people who have taken early retirement, looking for a better lifestyle, is one group.  Another comprises people, looking for a better lifestyle, who either believe they can make a living in the town or can work from home generating their income elsewhere.

They bring expertise that less desirable towns just can’t attract.  They’re demand more and usually get it.  The towns get even better.

Martin Ranger took early retirement as the head of Foschini Group’s retail jewellery division, which includes American Swiss and Sterns jewellers.  He and Annie lived in Hout Bay, where he had been chair of the Hout Bay Ratepayers Bokkemanskloof Homeowners’ Association, before moving to Stanford in 2005.

They chose Stanford after looking at all the “usual places” – Greyton, Prince Albert, Riebeek Kasteel, etc.  A property developer friend told them they couldn’t go wrong buying property in Stanford since, with the new road to Cape Agulhas, values could only rise.

They bought the only plot still available in the new section of the village in 2004 and set about planning a home with a separate self-catering cottage – to give them something to do and provide for two business class air tickets to London a year.

Their move to Stanford came at the time of one the village’s boom periods.  Silliery Estate saw a lot of building and filled up with new people – baby boomers, young retirees, new people with energy.  “They were predominantly English-speaking, well-travelled and educated, and eager to make an input into civil society,” he recalls.

In 2006, Martin joined the Stanford Conservation Trust:  “I’m not a ‘greenie’ but the architectural side is one of my interests.”

In 2007 – Stanford’s 150^th anniversary – he joined the tourism organisation and became vice-chair when Eric Mair of Stanford Valley Guest Farm resigned from the position.  Jami Kastner was chairperson.

“Overstrand Municipality gave us R150,000 to spend on the celebrations, which went well, and we came out of that at a new level with new perspectives.  The anniversary gave the committee new drive, focus and energy.

Jami dropped out for three years, producing three children, and Martin became acting chair in 2008.

In 2010, there was the big change from Information Bureau to the Stanford Association of Tourism & Business, trading as StanfordInfo, which allowed them to expand their membership quite dramatically.  At present, StanfordInfo has 117 members of which 42 are accommodation establishments.

What have the challenges and achievements been?  “One of the big problems is always money because we’d like to do so much more.  We seem to spend more time fire-fighting than is ideal.

“The successes have been the raised operating levels of the office and our website is better, but not as good as it should be.  Our below-the-line advertising has been very good – and to an extent we have Rina de Wet to thank for that – but we need to leverage it more.

“Above-the-line advertising costs money which we don’t have (– the organisation’s total annual budget is between R300,000 and R400,000).  The viral revolution has its place although it’s not something I understand completely.

“Before 2007, Stanford had no branding and we came up with “A Village Green”, embracing activities like the Bird Fair and heritage activities to target a well-heeled, middle-aged, getaway market.

“This was reviewed two years ago by the new, younger committee.  The view was that we’ve got those people, now we need a younger group to fill the restaurants and pubs and who will appreciate Stanford as a safe haven for young children.  In the end we came up with “A taste of village life” and we have expanded our business.  In winter we still see the older group and summer does see a much younger crowd, with their children.”

(In the absence of any brand expertise, StanfordInfo has fallen into the same trap that many tourism organisations fall into.  They confuse branding with logos and campaigns.  “A village green” and “A taste for village life” are campaigns, not brands.  The confusion is demonstrated by the fact that  StanfordInfo (the organisation) has its own, completely separate visual identity which often wins out over the town’s visual identity.)

When it comes to Team Stanford (or Brand Stanford, if you like), Martin concedes that this is one area where they haven’t been successful at all.  “We’re nowhere nearly as united, presenting a shared sense of values, as Greyton, for example.”

Martin makes the point that another big challenge is growing awareness outside the Overberg for Stanford.  Overstrand Municipality established a Destination Marketing Organisation for the whole area in 2008, which Martin chaired for six months.  He was very keen to leverage the very strong Hermanus brand in the name (Hermanus Bay for example), but other towns wouldn’t hear of it.  In the end “Cape Whale Coast” was adopted as a compromise.

He doesn’t believe that the Overstrand Municipality’s Whale Coast DMO marketing is effective and is yet to see a marketing plan.

Conservation Trust
This is one of Stanford’s success stories.  Its membership spirals whenever there are burning issues in the village, reaching 100 or more, and drops to the current 30+ when things are more or less under control.

Its active sub-committee is the Heritage Committee.  Overstrand Municipality refers every building plan for all buildings over 60 years old to this committee for approval.

The Trust also manages and maintains the Wandelpad – the walk alongside the river that is one of the village’s greatest assets – and the village’s leiwater system.  Stanford is one of the few villages where leiwater still exists – the system of sluices that leads water to many older properties for garden purposes.

The Trust has worked very hard at building a good relationship with the municipality, and this has been to the benefit of everyone in Stanford.

Martin makes the point, though, that “there is a limited number of active participants in civil society and there is overlapping between the different organisations.”  He believes that there needs to be amalgamation where possible, perhaps between the Conservation Trust and the ratepayers association, for example.  “But senior members of society object.  They say one can’t be confrontational in one area and co-operative in another.”  Surely the aim is to get the municipality and others all reading from the same hymn sheet so confrontation is never a requirement?

Stanford is yet to establish a shared brand that lives in the hearts and minds of all who live or visit there.

We asked Suné Greef, Overstrand Municipality’s tourism marketing manager what their strategy is to extend the stay of these visitors and spread them (and their spend) around more of the region.  (Overstrand comprises the towns of Hermanus, Stanford, Gansbaai, Kleinmond and Pringle Bay.)

Here is her answer:

The overall strategy of Cape Whale Coast, the tourism marketing arm of the Overstrand Municipality, is to make this area the preferred whole year destination for visitors to the Cape and that this area should be their base from where they will make trips to other areas.

To achieve this collaboration from the private sector as well as other authorities will be needed.  Included in the plan are:

• Introducing travel packages, that will include a variety of products combined with special offers negotiated with local product owners;
• Developing and marketing new and exciting tourism routes of which niche products, such as shark cage diving, will form part of;
• The introduction or upgrading of catalyst events in the area that will bring vibrancy to the different towns of the area and attract visitors;
• The compilation of an integrated spatial development framework that will provide opportunities for key tourism growth products in terms of accommodation and entertainment, amongst others in the Gansbaai area;
• The tarring of the road between Elim and Baardskeerdersbos to be completed in 2013 will open up travelling opportunities for tourists (Gansbaai will no longer be the end of the line and tourists can stay over to travel further, instead of back to where they come from; and
• Broadening of participation in tourism planning to ensure a wider spread of opportunities.

At this stage the profile of the shark cage diving tourists to Gansbaai  displays that of people in the high-income bracket and often enjoying celebrity status.  They have a taste for luxury accommodation and the night life of Cape Town, which can not be fully provided at this stage.  Hopefully we will be able to cater for them in the future.

Hmmm… strategies without deliverables and action plans, with dates, always sound a little hollow.