News from St Francis Bay Residents Association

by | Mar 23, 2016 | St Francis

St Francis Not for Profit Company finally registered

We find ourselves in a frustrating waiting period. We need the approval of the FBAR by DEDEAT to know precisely what repairs we can do to the Beach revetments and the Spit, and what the likely cost will be. But having said that much progress has been made during March :

  • NPC Registration: We have completed the registration of the Not-For-Profit Company (NPC) required for the work that will be done to the River, Spit, Beach, Roads, Stormwater Drains and Sewerage infrastructure. We have opened a Bank account for the company, and transferred donations made to-date into this account from the Trust account provided by Moore Stephens. The new banking details are included below for donations. The bank account for your membership of the SBRA is also included below for your convenience.
  • Branding the “Saving St Francis” strategy: The 5 year strategy that the SFBRA developed to “Save St Francis” and the overwhelming endorsement of this strategy at the SFBRA’s AGM on 17 December 2015, required a re-think of the Association’s brand. The name and brand of the Association and its NPC needs to be aligned to what we plan to do over the next 5 years i.e. the restoration and maintenance of St Francis’ infrastructure. Sue Rae Fox has kindly offered her expertise and resources to design the brand for the Association and NPC i.e. the name, by-line and logos. We expect to launch this during April.
  • MOUs: We have retained a local legal firm to draft the various MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding). These MOUs are Agreements we require with the Kouga Municipality authorising the NPC to both access Municipal property and repair/restore Municipal infrastructure. The first MOU was submitted to the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of the Kouga Municipality this week for his review. This MOU is required to authorise the NPC to have access to the Beach and Spit (municipal properties) to make the necessary emergency repairs to the Beach revetments and the Spit, once the FBAR has been approved by DEDEAT.
  • Stakeholder Engagement:  We engaged with many stakeholders to identify the roles they can play in “Saving St Francis”. Some of these included :
  • Property Management Group: manages/administers 39 of the 40 Private Estates in the Greater St Francis area. We were given permission from all these estates (except) to share their Property Owner contact details with the SFBRA so we can communicate directly to them if not already a member of the SFBRA. The one exception was where the private estate preferred not to share these details with us but instead agreed to send our communications to their property owners on our behalf.
  • Kromme Trust: we require Environmental expertise on the SFBRA Committee to ensure we have the necessary capability to ensure environmental compliance in our Infrastructure Restoration projects.
  • Various Engineering and Construction professionals to develop a more comprehensive Master Plan for our Infrastructure.
  • Identifying other Infrastructure demands that we may have to consider, including Waste Management, Refuse, Street Lighting, etc.
  • Cape St Francis Civics Association to determine whether they wish to participate in our SRA application or to do so separately.
  • Understanding disaster threats we should be aware of (floods and fires), and developing a Disaster Management Plan from a Volunteers Resourcing perspective.
  • DBSA (Development Bank of Southern Africa) to explore possible source of loan and grant financing of infrastructure.
  • PARRA (Port Alfred Rate Payers Association) to understand how they have worked with their Municipality to access National Government funding to finance capital project e.g. new Waste Management plant.

We are waiting for :

DEDEAT to approve the FBAR, which was submitted on 11 February 2016. This approval should specify what we will be authorised to repair on the Beach and Spit, and how we should make the repairs (e.g. rocks, sand bags, dredging). This is Phase 1 of the River, Spit and Beach restoration.

  • Kouga Municipal (KM) Council to approve the Worley Parsons report, submitted to it some 2 years ago. The KM Council has to approve this report before we can start on the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for Phase 2 of the River, Spit and Beach long term restoration.
  • KM to publish an advertisement for an Engineering Consultant to assist with recommending the most appropriate option(s) from the 10 alternatives listed in the Worley Parsons report for Phase 2 of the River, Spit and Beach restoration project. The Worley Parsons report needs be approved by KM Council before this appointment can be made.

We plan to launch a more comprehensive appeal for donations, and collect the pledges we have received so far during April. We need to be ready to start work on the Spit and Beach as soon as the FBAR has been approved by DEDEAT.

Wishing you all well,

SFBRA Committee

SAVING ST FRANCIS BANK DETAILS:

Bank:                                 Standard Bank, Humansdorp
Name:                              St Francis Bay Residents Association NPC
Account Number:        300 136 862
Branch Code:                 050015
Reference to use:        Please quote your name and Erf. No. as reference
Please email a bank proof of payment to contact@sfbresidents.org

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION

Bank:                                 Standard Bank, Humansdorp
Account name:             St Francis Bay Residents Association
Account number:         08 249 9276
Branch code:                  050015
Reference to use:        Please quote your name and Erf. No. as reference