Reader feels CSF property owners should make that decision
An interesting comment from a Cape St Francis property owner appears to reject CSF Civics decision to not join the St Francis SRA. Citing that three quarters of CSF home owners do not belong to the Civic association, the reader suggests that whilst CSF do not feel the neglect YET, there is nothing preventing non-civic members to join and thus improve services they would benefit from if the SRA is adopted.
It would be interesting to get comment from Cape St Francis residents for after all many who live in CSF rely on St Francis Bay for their livelihoods and as such the demise of St Francis Bay could seriously influence not only their futures but also their property values. There is no argument that St Francis Bay is the economic hub of the greater St Francis. Certainly CSF residents could use Humansdorp and Jeffreys Bay for their shopping, banking and medical needs but without available work some, even if only a small minority, would no doubt be forced to move to a less tranquil lifestyle than they enjoy at the almost southern tip of Africa.
Were the SRA go ahead with CSF participating there would need to be some form of guarantee that certainly portion f the special rates paid by CSF would be ring-fenced for improvements to Cape St Francis. One would believe that the SRA committee would be more than open to negotiating an equitable arrangement to ensure CSF gets their fair share.
Read readers comment below
Less than a quarter of CSF property owners are members of the CSF Civic Association. Therefore the other three-quarters may reject the decision. It is a massive task to encourage owners to support the Civics. There is no one that prevents someone to encourage owners (1 quarter Civic members and 3 quarters non-members) to participate in the SRA initiative. Good luck. Maybe the Cape St Francis owners do not feel the neglect of the suburb as intensely as the St Francis owners, yet?
Good Morning. I would suggest that “if” the majority of CSF residents are interested in the SRA concept then they would do well to do it themselves through a selected CSF committee be it the civic association or otherwise. At worst CSF residents can be guaranteed that the fund will be used by people who have CSF interests at heart. It won’t be necessary to negotiate an “equitable arrangement” to ensure that CSF gets their fair share.
It appears to me that the SRA 50% contribution required was arrived at by not what is realistic in terms of affordability but by reverse engineering what Rand value estimated to get the job done. Makes some sense but the funds to be collected make the 50% a minimum which is high and at the end of the day it will probably cost a lot more. I haven’t seen any comment on the fact that whilst this is all going along the municipality rates will not remain static. One needs a crystal ball to know what the rates could be in five years time but to illustrate the point apply a 20% increase to your current rates over 5 years and suddenly you are paying double the original SRA contrabution. Whilst this may be extreme are you that confident as to what’s going to happen next in South African politics? One would imagine that if CSF was to impliment an SRA concept then the monthly contribution would be more realistic according to its needs.
The “demise” of St Francis Bay is related to two main issues, the spit and the beach. Truth be told St Francis has grown steadily in the last five years not only in the volume of holiday makers but also in permanent residents. Most businesses in the village will confirm that season just gets bigger and bigger and off season turnovers are also up year on year. Whilst I agree that the beach and the spit are serious issues and need to be resolved they are not contributing to the “demise” of St Francis right now and barring a disaster won’t do so in the foreseeable feature.
So with regards to isolating CSF residents into a separate group and suggesting we may have to move to a less tranquil area should St Francis Bay fail one has to accept that the people that live in CSF own businesses and provide services to the whole St Francis Bay area. Relative to its size CSF contributes substantially to the overall economy of the area. Take the Lighthouse, CSF Beach, Seal Point Surf Break and the Wild Side out of the tourist equation and where would that leave St Francis Bay as a tourism destination. Still a beautiful place but not as effective maybe??
We have all welcomed the DA into the area and already there are very pleasing visible improvements. Clearly, the SRA is well supported by the DA as its a free ticket to St Francis improvements. We are all aware of the socio-economic priorities municipalities face and realize that we are not going to get what our taxes pay for but what the SRA possibly does is remove all accountability for the DA to perform with regards to our infrastructure. It all seems a bit fait accompli and that this is the only way.
My view is that the SRA is a really big bite out of the apple and I would prefer to see a group like this take on a specific project, such as the spit, deal with it and then move on to the next. The SRA has too many moving parts and I think that people in St Francis may prefer to see one project on the table and pay for that. Give the people one project to get behind and drive it until completion. The spit to me will be the demise of St Francis as if ther canals are compromised we will all be looking for a less tranquil place to live. It is without doubt the game changer as far as the economy of St Francis is concerned.It doesn’t matter where you live you will be adversely affected if there is a catastrophic event at the spit. It is the goose that lays the golden egg.
I am sure I will get pulled up on some of the points I have made. I don’t have all the answers but it is my wish that the whole St Francis area is improved. It is a special place. How that happens remains to be seen.
The fact that “less than a quarter” of CSF residents belong to the Civics may have to do with the fact that such a large percentage of houses are merely holiday homes and are closed up most of the year. It would be interesting if someone who knows could tell us how many permanent residents live in Cape St Francis more or less year round.