Stay of execution for beachfront Wimpy
The restaurant was allowed to stay open and the town saved face.
UMDONI Municipality may well be folding on its Wimpy eviction order under increased pressure from the public and media.
The iconic beachfront restaurant was served with an eviction notice and was ordered to be out by last Thursday, just as thousands of cyclists were set to converge on Scottburgh for the Sani2C.
Luckily, Wimpy was allowed to stay open and the town saved face.
It is now believed that officials have re-opened negotiations with the current franchise holders, Faurco Investments, with a view to them continuing with their long term lease.
However, it is said that there are certain conditions. One of them is that Faurco pays the bill for all Umdoni’s legal costs to date. There’s no official comment from either side yet. The item has been on the Exco agenda, but meetings have been in-committee and not open to the media or public.
Civil rights organisation AfriForum could not confirm or deny the turnabout by the municipality, but acknowledged that legal proceedings, set for Durban High Court, were on hold.
Meanwhile, AfriForum is not letting up on the various beachfront pavilion matters.
They added another 1 000 signatures to the #WimpyStay petition, bringing the total to 3 500.
AfriForum’s Chris Fourie added that this petition was not only related to the Wimpy eviction, despite it being the main issue at hand, but that it also related to the pub lease saga, poor state of the building and mismanagement of the beachfront.
They are also planning a silent protest at the council meeting scheduled for Wednesday next week, where they will hold placards calling for the Wimpy to stay and to bring back Phat Boyz.
Council cancelled the Tholakele lease recently and wants to put the facility out to re-tender. However, AfriForum is adamant that, according to the original tender documents, it should go to the next preferred bidder which happens to be Faurco.
