St Francis SRA not unlike Brexit

Watching Sky News and the ongoing Brexit saga it is in a way rather similar to the ongoing SRA vote. As with those voting to exit the European Union so that Britain can have control over its future rather than leaving it in the hands of Brussels so it is those in favour of the SRA want to wrest the future of St Francis away from Kouga municipality by voting YES. On the other hand those wanting to leave the future of St Francis in the hands of the municipality by voting NO is not dissimilar to those who voted against BREXIT thus leaving it to the EU to decide what is good for Britain. This was brought to the fore by Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party in her  press statement yesterday that she would propose to again have a referendum for Scotland’s independence so that Scotland can remain in the EU.

Social media has been awash with posts by both those for the SRA and those against. Concerning is the number of anti SRA posts that show a total misunderstanding of what the SRA is proposing that seem more emotional than factual. That said there are however posts questioning certain aspects of the proposal that do need to be addressed and thus it really is important that civic leaders from both sides get together and properly address these issues of concern for the facts certainly point to the municipality not being able to deliver all that St Francis needs.

St Francis contributes some R37million to Kouga finances by way of property rates and as there is legislation that 60% of the municipal income must be spent on underprivileged townships this leaves at best, only some R14 million available and this is before even factoring in the actual municipal running expenses such as salaries et al.

It really doesn’t take rocket science to realise that additional funds are necessary to reverse the decaying infrastructure. At the State of the Municipality presentation a week or two back Exec Mayor Elza van Lingen brought up several interesting realities one of which was what the council was looking to achieve by way of road upgrades and this certainly doesn’t bode well for any money being spent on St Francis roads in the next year or more.

There appears to be a belief that the SRA is to be primarily for the canals, the spit, the river and the beaches and it seems these issues are understandably clouding the purpose of an SRA and where the money is to be spent.  SFPO does need to set the public’s minds at rest by better clarifying these aspects of the funding proposal and the article SFPO VOTE for the SRA more clearly illustrates where the funds are to be spent. .

SFPO have supplied St Francis Today which we were intending to publish today but owing to a few technical issues have decided to rather publish it tomorrow. The document lists answers to comments and questions posted on both SFT and on social media and we will publish these tomorrow as well as create a page where ongoing questions, comments and answers will be posted. .