Three Cheers to all those who worked so hard to stop Thyspunt happening
Being somewhat indisposed for the past six weeks through illness has been frustrating particularly as there has been so much meaty news during the period that I lay flat on my back reading the news from my smart phone each morning. Of course the Springbok’s huge loss was hardest to take made all the more frustrating as I was unable to watch the broadcast.
Although SFT had published a few broadcasts over the past weeks, in my haste to get back to work I overdid things a bit and ended up back in beds with a nasty lung condition further delaying SFT return.
Yesterday (Monday 16) would have been the perfect day to resume paublishing in light of Friday;s massive news but unfortunately I had to be in PE bright and early for the cardio to give me the once over. So whilst everyone in St Francis Bay is no doubt aware of Eskom’s decision not to build the next nuclear power station at Thyspunt maybe there are some reasers further afield who have not heard, unlikely but just maybe!
So massive was Friday’s news that there it is of little wonder that it took the power out throughout St Francis / Oyster Bay for some 12 hours or was that just Eskom’s way of giving us the finger for going into battle against them. No doubt there are some pro-nuclear supporters with more than a little egg on their face, non-more so than ever popular Dr Kelven Kemm particularly in light of his claims (28 August) pronouncing Thyspunt was going ahead in spite of the court ruling that the entire process had been cancelled.
Local Thyspunt Alliance and other anti-nuclear activists have certainly been rewarded and our thanks must go out to the Thyspunt Alliance especially to our own Trudi Malan and Hilton Thorpe and others including Gary Koekemoer of NoPENuke for their efforts. While this decision does not totally scuttle plans to one day build a nuclear power station at Thyspunt, it certainly is unlikely to rear its head during the lives of the majority of our readers. And certainly in years to come a solution will have been found to store generated power renedering nuclear options unnecessary and obsolete.
No doubt the anti-nuke fight will continue with Eskom’s decision to build its proposed new nuclear reactor at Duynefontein, near Koeberg in Cape Town and here’s to all those supporting the Thyspunt effort lend a helping hand to their Cape Town colleagues.
And just to give confirmation that the decision is final (in terms of being preferred to Thyspunt) attached are two documents, one from Environmental Affairs and one from Gibb, the consulting engineers.
Ha, Ha, Colin – I did wonder the same thing about Eskom giving us the finger!!! We are in serious dispute with them at the minute because they installed a new meter and immediately our electricity bill quadrupled. We are on to NERSA for what it is worth. Hope you are making a good recovery. XS
Whaddo we whaddo we whaddo we say? WE-E-E-LL DONE! I have followed the debate from a distance but always hoping that the anti-nuclear lobby would win. My family and friends have enjoyed some really special times at the St Andrew’s fishing shack, which is in a really beautiful unspoilt place and is close to where one of the original fish traps can still be found.
As for cutting our power off, are they dof or what? They are dealing with greenies who very likely are not bothered by such one-offs and have sought other environmentally sensitive sources of power, albeit some of us romantics haven’t quite progressed beyond candles…..
Hmmmm….. how about raising a green finger by supporting guided tours like they do in the Transkei, where local people share our heritage with visitors.
I’ll be one of the first to book in!
Very happy to hear Thyspunt has been saved. We had a house in Cape St Francis for many years when John Booysen was still the unofficial ‘mayor’. Henry and Gwen Brown used to take us in his bakkie along the rocky west coast to the fountain where he would pump water for the village while we picnicked and picked wild watercress. My parents, Rebecca (Bucka) and Jack Jankes took over the house when my father retired. They moved to a single-storey house in the Homestead at St Francis Bay when my father could no longer negotiate the steps in their large double-storey home. It was sold after my father died and my mother moved to Johannesburg only three years ago. She is now 99 and still doing well thank goodness at a retirement village very near the majority of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I just found and gave her some photos I took of her magnificent indigenous garden.
Hello Anne
How lovely to hear from you, and that Bucka is still going strong at 99! Please give her our love and very best wishes – is there any chance she will visit Cape St Francis? Yes, isn’t the saving of Thyspunt wonderful news!
God bless you all
Hilary & Dave Badger.
Please share your pictures of the indigenous garden, is it mainly eastern cape flora?
Hi Anne,
Saw you were Bucka’s daughter. I visited your parents as I had met them through Celeste Freedman years ago. Now I have just returned from Cape Town to visit Celeste. She is 95 but not well. She remembers your Mum and we always talked of her when we were on our way to SFB.
Sending greetings, Go well – Wendi Maxwell