Ski-boat club takes RNM to court
Pumula has only one access road to the beach for pedestrian and vehicular traffic and this has been used by the public for about 80 years.
The decades-long saga surrounding access to the beach at Pumula that has bedevilled the licensing and now the listing of the the Injambili public launch site is no closer to being resolved.
Mike Fraser, chairman of the Injambili Ski-boat Club, said they had reached the end of the road regarding a negotiated settlement with either landowner Gail Gibbons or Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (RNM).
ALSO READ : Pumula ski-boat launch site gets public support
On Thursday last week, Mr Fraser issued a review application in the Durban High Court under the provisions of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.
This followed a decision by RNM not to support the licensing and management of the Injambili launch site.
These papers have been served on RNM by the sheriff in Port Shepstone.
The same papers will also be served on co-owners Ms Gibbons and Gordon Ennis and the MEC for Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
Earlier this year, Mr Fraser received notification from EDTEA confirming its decision “not to pursue with the listing of the Injambili launch site” on the basis that it “cannot compel the municipality to reinstate the application for the public launch site.”
Mr Fraser appealed the decision.
On September 11 the appeal was refused, principally on the grounds that “there was no application for the department to consider when the municipality withdrew same” and “the municipality and the department have agreed to reconsider the application should the issue of access be resolved.”
This is what has transpired since 1992:
Pumula has only one access road to the beach for pedestrian and vehicular traffic and this has been used by the public for about 80 years.
Due to a conveyancing error, part of this access road which ran over government property was transferred into private ownership in 1992 and no public access servitude was registered.
In 2009, the Integrated Coastal Management Act became law and it enshrined the general public’s right to beach access and compelled coastal municipalities to pass by-laws to provide for public beach access servitudes.
In 2010, council was made aware of the objections by co-landowner Ms Gibbons against the boating public using a portion of the property transferred by the government in 1992 to access the beach.
In 2011, it was resolved that land for this purpose and to create beach parking would be acquired..
The municipality offered compensation for this land to the tune of R80 000. The offer was rejected by Ms Gibbons and subsequent efforts to negotiate with her lawyers failed. The municipality did nothing further.
In 2015, the Community Services department agreed to manage the launch site and place it on the schedule of sites to be listed in compliance with the new listing requirements.
Following a public meeting in October 2017, the municipality withdrew its support for the listing citing a myriad of unresolved issues.
In May 2018, a meeting was held regarding the lack of access which had still not been resolved by the municipality.
Municipal manager, Max Mbili agreed to put the final decision on support and management of the site on hold until he had convened an inspection in loco attended by the property owners, relevant municipal officials and Mr Fraser, so he could get a clear picture of the issues and report back to council.
In January 2019, an RNM employee submitted a minute to council, which Mr Fraser said he had since discovered was fraught with inaccuracies.
The minute and council decision referred to a licensing process which was terminated in 2014, when the new process of listing launch sites commenced.
“RNM is trying to backtrack on its 2011 decision to acquire public access and parking which is in keeping with its legal duties. This decision stands as it has never been rescinded or reviewed by a court.
“The latest actions and decisions of the municipality are neither lawful, reasonable nor are they procedurally fair and I have instituted a review by the Durban High Court in an effort to have the council’s decision overturned,” said Mr Fraser.
He added that the Pumula community would do everything in its power to keep open the site from which the coelacanth discovery team set out to sea.
RNM spokesman, Simon April said the municipality would wait to be served with papers and would then take it from there, but added that for now it had “no comment on the issue, as it seems to be sub judice”.
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