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... Read moreTake a walk on the Wild side . . .
scorched earth
Tuesday, 20 October, 2020 - 04:15
The current "Integrated Development Plan" for King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality (Link: KSD IDP 2017-2022) mentions no fewer than 7 times that Hole in the Wall is considered a Heritage Site, but that it is not yet proclaimed. And it further warns of the danger of uncontrolled developments.
Yet despite investigating our complaint about the parking lot overlooking the Hole, DEDEAT takes absolutely no cognizance of the disastrous impact on the "Sense of Place" to the surrounds and view site overlooking the Hole in the Wall. Instead, they've sanctioned raising the road level by approximately 4 metres above the watercourse, and widening the roadway to over 15 metres to provide "bus bays" and parking, so that people can enjoy the privilege of seeing the Hole from the comfort of their vehicles. At what cost?
This past Saturday was the busiest day we've seen since March and the lockdown, and at around 15:00 the glare from half a dozen windscreens, alone, was blinding! And the views from the hillside itself are impacted from millions of angles. The "whole" is discarded in favour of a myopic front-row view of the Hole, only.
Dept. of Transport have apparently instructed that this view site be tarred and completed before the new year. But they have yet to complete the actual road leading there. The far more necessary 10km stretch between Coffee Bay and Hole in the Wall has been abandoned for the past two years, after they completed a total of 2,4km of tarring, and left another 1km tarred on one side only. Not to mention the road (DR18031) from Mqanduli to Coffee Bay is in an absolutely appalling state, and should be a FAR higher priority.
Sunday, 22 September, 2019 - 16:52
Joni Mitchell wrote Big Yellow Taxi in 1969, and it's more relevant today than ever. In her words:
"I wrote Big Yellow Taxi on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart…this blight on paradise."
So anyway, they're tarring the road between Hole in the Wall and Coffee Bay at the moment, and I've been tempted several times to post about the swathe of destruction in its wake for the width of the road and it's graded and cambered 80km /hour specification. (Like, they're cutting 10m or more off the tops of the hills!)
In a tiny little coastal village like this, a sweet little cobblestone road would be far more appropriate, but I couldn't work up the energy to mount a futile protest against the inevitability of it. But when they started working in the village here in Hole in the Wall towards the end of last month, I knew I had to try and do something to prevent them from destroying the "sense of place" and natural beauty of the hillside overlooking Hole in the Wall itself. So I talked to the road crew and they pointed me to their supervisor.
That hillside was saved from development by DEDEAT (Dept. of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism) in 2006, when the new hotel development attempted to site themselves there. There was another development about 10 years ago that they stopped, too. And the investor who had fenced and started building without an EIA or any sort of permission was subsequently forced to remove all traces. He must have lost a lot of money.
Now, however, the spatial development initiative has received funding from national government to fast-track development in this area, so some civil servant has drawn a pen-line from A to B without any thought about environmental and ecological impact; or more to the point, any kind of aesthetic integrity.
A year ago, almost exactly, I mounted an attempt to get DEDEAT to assist with having this particular hillside (and it's counterpart on the other side of the river) demarcated as a no-go area for any development, to protect the environs for future generations to enjoy its unspoilt beauty. The kindly response I got was to the effect that I should try to engage with the community to do so, and they wished me luck. Unfortunately I work for a living, and haven't had the time or resources to undertake such a time-consuming mission. Now it's too late.
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Pretty much everyone will recognise this beautiful cover version by Counting Crows:
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