Extracts from “Save Our Sunshine Durban” letter dated 20 January 2017:

“What started out as suspicions  …  have solidified into unpleasant realities and there is little doubt now that our water sports clubs as well as the public’s access to Durban’s beaches are under threat.

Who, you may ask, is behind all this?

The cuckoo in the nest

Having observed developments for a considerable period of time, our impression is that the water sports clubs have been infiltrated by a group of individuals who have one or more of the following objectives in mind:

• To wrest control of the clubs from the hands of club members
• To benefit financially from this process themselves, either through creating employment opportunities for themselves or through “selling” control of the clubs to an external party
• To rid Vetch’s beach of water sports clubs altogether
• To block public access to Vetch’s beach in favour of a commercial concern

How is this to be achieved?

The strategy appears to be as follows:

• Destabilise the clubs from within
• Set the various clubs up against each other
• Create the public impression that the clubs are at each others’ throats and cannot manage their own affairs
• Prevent open discussion of these events and discredit and silence anyone who wants to bring it to light
• Step in as the “saviours” and arrange to run any future establishments themselves

Saying “No”

A metaphor was bandied about in the press recently to the effect that rebuilding the wall between DUC and PYC would be tantamount to cutting a ship in half because the passengers weren’t getting along.

In our opinion this statement is malicious and creates quite a misleading picture.  Walk into the PYC beach club at any time, and it is filled with water sports enthusiasts and their friends and relatives, none of whom can be distinguished as belonging to one club or the other.  There simply is no conflict among the membership groups!  We all get along, we exist in happy and cooperative cohesion with each other and have done so for decades, with and without walls between us.

It is therefore an irony above ironies that two of the water sports clubs are currently involved in a face-off in the High Court.

The two clubs  – the DUC and the PYC – who should be focusing their attention, their financial resources, the time and energy of their committees towards preserving the assets and traditions of their clubs, and the wellbeing and promotion of water sports in Durban – are now wasting all of these resources in a legal wrangle in which – whatever the outcome – both clubs stand to lose in various ways, not least of which, financially.

Unfortunately, the activities of only a handful of individuals have compelled the clubs into this legal conflict.

On the plus side:  PYC has become wise to what is afoot, and has to date prevented what was referred to as an attempted hi-jacking of the club during recent proceedings in the Durban motion court.  In our view, PYC has had no choice but to take protective action, and hopefully the DUC membership will have the strength and insight to do the same:  resist hi-jacking of its club and assets, at every opportunity.  We have heard from many directions that DUC members in the know are sickened by what is happening to their club.  All they have to do – like PYC has done – is to stand up and say “No, we have had enough. There is the door.”

Having compared notes with others who are concerned about these developments, and having kept an eye on the press, we believe that the situation is coming to a head.  There has been an escalation in the relentless efforts of the racketeers involved to silence and discredit anyone who tries to address these issues, to prevent open discussion of the future of the clubs at club meetings, to stir friction among the clubs by at least one attempted hi-jacking of a club, ceaseless attempts to discredit the sturdy Durban Paddle Ski Club – the long-time guardians of Vetch’s beach – and attempts to poach members from other clubs, demanding disciplinary action and threatening with defamation suits and criminal charges anyone who gets in the way.

One cannot help but wonder what or how much these individuals stand to gain from their actions, and the nature of their association with parties outside the clubs who want to get their hands on this precious part of our heritage and destroy the happy and successful social and recreational ecosystem that we have established at Vetch’s over the years as a sporting community.

Whatever the loot, it must be quite substantial, judging by the most recent ploy, currently being played out.

The poisoned chalice

To our amazement, we heard – in the course of legal proceedings during 2016 – the blue card we know as the “PWC card” being referred to as the “DUC reciprocity card”.  Despite protestations that no such thing as the “DUC reciprocity card” exists, the proponent of this fiction stuck to their guns, claiming that the logos of three clubs on the back of the card proved its authenticity.

Printing cards and claiming them to be reciprocity cards in the absence of any reciprocity agreement is, in our view, tantamount to someone putting a crown on their own head and proclaiming themselves emperor.

Numerous previous requests to DUC for copies of reciprocity agreements have met with a deafening silence.  But just to confirm:

• Save Our Sunshine Durban hereby calls on the secretary of the Durban Underwater Club, Mrs. Leigh … Phillips, to forward to us for publication and distribution any dated and signed reciprocity agreement/s between the Durban Underwater Club and any other club in Durban, and especially relating to any card.
• We issue the same request to whoever claims to run or claims to be a director of PWC, and request them to let us know on what basis, if any, reciprocity can be dished out or withdrawn by an organisation that has, to our knowledge, no valid registered address, no constitution, no confirmed Memorandum of Incorporation and apart from their “directors”, no members!

In the case of DUC, we are especially curious to see such reciprocity agreement, since in our understanding, reciprocity with local clubs and individuals fly directly in the face of the DUC constitution.

Therefore, offerings of reciprocity with DUC as well as PWC should be regarded with care as it may turn out to be more of a curse than a gift.  We would encourage anyone being approached with offers of such reciprocity to meet with their peers in the water sports community and apprise themselves of the history that lies behind it, and especially its relation to the constitution – or not – of the organisation known as the “PWC”, since they may unknowingly be used as pawns in a unpleasant and very unsavoury game.  For example:  having claimed a membership of 7,500, but having practically destroyed the relationship with PYC, somebody now has to bolster their figures and it looks as if this is going to be accomplished by using the name and membership of the esteemed RNYC.

Although all the clubs at Vetch’s are being compromised by these events, we believe that the DUC is in an especially precarious position.  It is rumoured that DUC has only 45 voting or “senior” members, (perhaps Mrs Phillips would clarify this) and it does not seem to have a healthy succession plan in place, leaving that club particularly vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation from within.

The barbaric behaviour towards DUC’s friends in the sporting community in the course of meetings between club executives have resulted in various rifts, of which the DUC membership have, to our knowledge, not been informed.

Due to the behaviour of certain individuals in the club, the DUC has become embroiled in at least two ongoing high court cases (to date) in recent months, and a pending arbitration.  We have heard from three water sports enthusiasts who have been threatened due to their attempts to protect the clubs:  one with civil action, and two with defamation suits.  Is anyone at DUC keeping track of the costs to DUC of these threats and legal proceedings?  To what extent is the DUC membership actually aware of what is being said and done in their name, and under its banner?

In conclusion:  With reference to the heading “The cuckoo in the nest”:  we invite you to follow the link below and consider whether one or more individuals fitting this profile have not made our clubs their nest.  We suspect this to be the case.  We have seen bullying and intimidation, we have seen repeated and pathological lying, we have seen clubs and individuals being persecuted and intimidated, we have seen a pathological craving for power – all of which have worked to the detriment of our clubs and is leading to the destruction of our community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace

……

We invite anyone to contribute to our website – anonymously, if they wish – and to provide information that may assist us in cleaning up the clubs and preserving them, and Vetch’s beach, for us and those who are to follow in our wake.”

_______________________________________________

3 August 2013

It is clear that the Durban Paddle Ski Club has been excluded from negotiations between DPDC and Durban’s water sports clubs in terms of the proposed Point development.

Thereby hangs a tale.

The Paddle Ski Club has proved repeatedly over the years that it is both financially and environmentally responsible;  in 2009, the club’s membership decided unanimously to oppose the construction of a small craft harbour at the Point, which would have deprived the water sports clubs and the public from the majority of the beach.  They were the only one of the four clubs in the Vetch’s area to do so.

Using all the financial means at its disposal, the club embarked on a legal battle to save the beach.  In the course of this battle they were threatened with eviction, had all their furniture taken, and at one point club members’ skis were removed from the club premises on instruction of the developers at the time.

In spite of this, the club stood firm, made a huge contribution toward preserving the beach and reef – notably, without any support from the other three clubs in the area.  There can be no doubt that every person enjoying Vetch’s beach today is indebted to this small club for the privilege; without them, the beach would have been paved over years ago.

The paddle ski club has recovered financially and is flourishing in terms of membership, despite the fact that most of their resources had been used to fight the legal battle for Vetch’s beach and their own survival.  In additional to this, they remain vigilant in their care and protection of the Point environment and the rights of both their membership and the general public to use the beach.

It is incomprehensible, sinister even, that they should be excluded from planning for the future of the water sports clubs.  This smacks of a cult,  where members are shunned and ostracized if they do not toe the path of a small group of elders!!!

PWC members were told, at an information meeting on 24 July 2015, that in future PWC would be run as a commercialised concern and by a team of “directors” who had apparently already been appointed.  Before any such appointments are confirmed, PWC members and the public should inquire as to what is afoot, on what basis these directors had been appointed and by whom; the remuneration attached to the directorships and which business interests are likely to be served.

For more information, follow the links below, which tell the story of the paddle ski club’s rescue and care of the beach that we all love:

David to take on Goliath over Durban Point

 

Confiscation of DPSC skis – Back to Court

 

Victory Salute for Durban Ski Club

 

New Point Plan Stirs Tension

___________________________________________

31 July 2013

Surely there is a better way

There is a saying along the lines of:  You have to create your own system or live according to someone else’s.

Durban has not been given the opportunity – or rather has not claimed the responsibility – of creating a development at the Point that fits in with and reflects the Durban lifestyle, its love for the beach and water-based sport and recreation, its integrated community, love and care for the environment, consideration for future generations.and pressing, current social needs.

In giving away this opportunity and responsibility, Durban is now faced with an imported plan, where water sport enthusiasts and the public will no longer be able to find parking on this “prime real estate”, where craft can no longer be kept on the “prime real estate”, and any chance of creating a family friendly and healthy ecosystem that is integrated with an equally healthy and welcoming environment, will be crushed forever.

This is not an impossible vision – Durban has the talent, energy and drive to do this, and most importantly, the value system to support it and see it through

The current grandiose plans would not be the first ones to have been presented to our city  – and what would be the consequences if it fails halfway through?  Will we have another developer leaving Durban tail between the legs, and Durban having to deal with the mess left behind?

The very least, one would expect for a development of this magnitude is to see a scale model of the development, proving that it would be physically possible to create something according to the proposed rezoning and plans.  The fact that such a model is not available less than a year before construction is said to start, is of concern and one wonders if anyone truly believes that it will go ahead..

—————————————————————————————–

30 July 2015:

If your house is falling down around your ears, you don’t just import someone to build you another one – you fix what you have and haven’t looked after, instead of just extending the slum.

Durban can come up with a solution for the Point that is home-grown,  and make it the pride of our city – but only after local and much more crucial needs have been attended to.

________________________________

23 July 2015:

If someone attacks you, and you fight back, is that “Grandstanding”?

_______________________________
The Vetch’s beach area is one of Durban’s sacred places.

We go there to be with Nature, escape for a short while from the stresses of our lives, out on a little boat or paddle-ski, alone or with a mate, maybe take the puppy for a walk. It is a place near home where we can step away from the glass and potholed concrete for a couple of hours and connect with something deeper. Feel the sand, the wind and the sea accept us, without any agenda.

Vetch’s beach has always been there for us, loving it when we come out to play, making no demands. On weekends, Durban’s people cover that beach, That is perhaps the only time some families have to relax together in open space, in the sunlight hours.

It is incredible, incomprehensible, that the watersport clubs, who probably represent the biggest sector of the public who regularly uses the Point area, are not saying a word about the current threat. Of the four commodores of the watersport clubs on the beach, only one was present at the Open Day, to my knowledge, and the only one who has publicly expressed his concern about the place of the watersport clubs in the proposed development (see Berea Mail article).

Over the past year or so, there have been meetings at PYC, DUC and DSBC at regular intervals, to keep members updated on plans for the Point area. These meetings were normally held on the same day and time, and sharing the traits of the meeting described in the article below: a staged “information” meeting, where members were promised the most elaborate castles in the air, but on enquiry, no further information was available. No business plan, no timeline. Questions were deflected and anyone pushing for more information was either shouted down or ridiculed.

Durban, please, speak up. You have to be a soldier now and fight – nobody else can do it for you. On your own, as a family unit, as a community, as a city. Let the municipality and the developers know how you feel about their proposals to put Vetch’s in the shade and change the natural Point skyline forever.

One understands that millions have already gone into the planning of the proposed development. But the developers should have consulted the people of Durban before doing that work, not after, and they would have known better.

In fact, they have already received a strong message in that direction. Let’s face it, if it hadn’t been for the Save Vetch’s Association, and the support that they received from the public, that area would have been paved over a long time ago. That battle took approximately nine years. The SVA has done more than their share, more than you can imagine, to preserve the beach and reef. But they have reached their objectives and cannot step into the breach on Durban’s behalf this time.

Set an example and show that people – that you – are still able to choose Nature over the cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces that feature in someone else’s greedy dreams.

Please send in your e-mail address or contact details so that we can create a response to the development proposals that will preserve the Point area.

ttp://bereamail.co.za/60521/residents-cry-foul-over-point-development-open-day/

 

___________________________________________________________

19 July 2015: Shambles and promises at the Open Day for the Rezoning of the Point

I arrived at the Open Day around 10 am.

By that time, the fight may have been over, but people were still steaming with anger.

Many people had arrived at 15 Turnball Boulevard at 9 am, expecting an open meeting where they could raise their concerns and get straight answers, with minutes being taken. But by all accounts proceedings had been set up to ensure that such a meeting was not to be.   When I got there, there was a presentation on a loop running against one wall, plans pasted on the other walls, and publications on the tables.  But in terms of getting straight answers to simple questions, it was a total shambles.

From what I understand – and this is confirmed by Charmel Payet’s article in today’s Sunday Tribune – the public will no longer be pacified by shallow displays of what the Point development would look like on day.  Too many have been burnt by previous false promises and are now sitting with the results of their former naivety.

I spoke to many people currently living in apartments at the Point who had lost millions due to the investment they had made there, and now stand to lose even more, one gentleman saying that having already lost 2 million in investment and sitting with an apartment he can’t give away, he foresees all the existing apartment buildings becoming low-cost housing soon.

The first thing I asked for when I got to the open day, was to see a scale model of the proposed development.

There wasn’t one.

Why, I ask myself, would a development company go to so much trouble and expense in terms of their planning, their presentations, but not have a scale model to show that what they are proposing was actually feasible?

Of specific interest to me, is the “under the promenade” issue, or the recycle bin, as I’ve come to think of it.  I asked several people at the open day where the watersports clubs would be accommodated in the new development, and the answer was simply “under the promenade”.  No further details were available.

It is strange then, that neither the plans that I have seen to date, nor the presentation that I watched through many times at the open day, showed a trace of any watersports clubs, under a promenade or anywhere else.

And logistically, and in terms of possible space – how would this actually work?  It seems that the clubs with their offices and restaurants, parking for their members, their fleets of boats and trailers, are all going to be housed underneath this promenade.  Exactly how big is this dungeon going to be, and where, and how will people get their boats in and out, for a start?

A striking feature of these events is the absence of comment from PWC – the joint watersports clubs.  I didn’t see any of the commodores at the open day, which is remarkable, taken that they are supposed to represent thousands of members, and probably the sector of the public who will be most deeply affected by changes to the wonderful beaches that we currently have.

The Durban Paddle Ski Club was represented but it is open knowledge that they have been shunned by PWC for years now, are not being called to PWC meetings, and have not been included or kept informed as per an earlier agreement to that effect.

The outcome of the argy-bargy at the start of the open day was that the DPDC, after considerable resistance, had to commit to an open meeting with the public, which commitment was heartily applauded by the public.

Another commitment made to me personally was that the plans and documents that were on view at the open day would be loaded to Pravin Amar’s website, pravinamar.com.  The current download available there – the 146M zip file – is of past plans and agreements.

Apart from the commitment by the developers to arrange a public information meeting, another useful outcome of the Open Day is the Response Forms that were made available, and which the public could use to raise their concerns and send them in, thereby becoming part of the Public Participation Process.

Download your copy of the forms here.

—————————————————————————————————-

18 July 2015: Open Day – Proposed rezoning of the Durban Point

I’m watching the sunrise give it’s good morning kiss to the ocean and thinking that I am at the start of what may become a long and uncomfortable journey.

I’m lacing my boots up anyway.

A Far Side cartoon came to mind on 10 June when my Mercury arrived and I saw Tony Carny’s article on the front page.  In Gary Larson’s cartoon, a husband and wife sit at their breakfast table, and one says to the other, “Did you see this thing in the paper” and a horrible monster sticks it’s head out from among the pages.  That is how I felt when I saw the latest set of plans proposed to “grace”our beachfront.

I have a problem with this development on so many levels, it is difficult to know where to start.  So I thought I’d put them all in one basket and start a campaign.  If I’m the only person that ever signs up to this campaign, that is just fine.  I may be just a chick with a laptop, but I will know that I have at least made an attempt to prevent this thing that promises to put a huge, unaffordable, glittering scar on the rest of my natural life.

I am aware that there are people who may feel like me about this issue, but due to professional, political or social reasons hesitate to speak out.  While I understand their position, I must note that this is an item that features strongly in my campaign basket:

How did we get into a situation where some of Durban’s most talented, hard-working and insightful sons and daughters have been cowed into silence?  These are people who don’t need to  speculate but can provide evidence and facts about the impact that the proposed development will have on on our natural heritage, the coffers of our city and our society at large.

I feel supported, while posting my first blog entry, that today is Mandela Day.  I think about the man and how he used his life, and I think about our Constitution, which says that, regardless of who you are, you have the right to:

• A healthy environment and the right to have the environment protected
• Access to information
• Freedom from discrimination
• The right to human dignity
• The right to freedom
• Protection against violence
• Freedom of thought
• Freedom of speech and expression
• Freedom of assembly and the right to protest
• Freedom of association
• Freedom of movement
• The right to participate in the cultural life of one’s choice

As far as this campaign “Save Our Sunshine Durban” is concerned, of course I would like for the whole of Durban to get to its feet, to the man, and say no, we do not want the proposed development.  We want to use our money – because it is our money that will be paying for those 50-storey buildings – to go towards social development programs, to get rid of our inner-city decay, to ensure our children get the education they deserve, to create jobs by restoring that which we already have and simply haven’t looked after, rather than just extend the existing slum.

So I invite everybody to indicate your support, send in information that would be helpful, and let’s make optimal use of the Municipality’s invitation to contribute to the public participation phase of the proposed development.

Karin