The Public participation process is scheduled until the March 16, 2020 (extended from February 29, 2020).

The new Nature Reserve By-Law is relevant for us, MAC, as we are located in the Table Bay Nature Reserve.

We, as MAC, after consulting with our lawyer, will submit our comments via the above link. We, however, ask our members to participate as well. Hopefully, the more input the City will receive, the more attention our comments will get.

The main points which we need to raise are below.

For further information, please contact the MAC office.

Regards

Katja

MAC Conservation Officer

Main Points to Raise:

There is no provision dealing with the grandfathering of existing arrangements like our MAC lease with the CoCT, permissions already granted by the City, designations of spaces for specific areas or assignments of rights by the City.

According to the new By-Law written authorisation of the CIty will be required or we will need to have an existing authorisation grandfathered in order to, for example, enter or exit after sunset, conduct any regattas, rent out any equipment, our containers, etc., do any fund-raising activities, organise any special event, conduct any type of training, offer any entertainment such as our MAC concerts, construct any booth, marque or other structure, organise any public meetings, operate our webcam, smoke other than in City-designated areas, do our own water testing etc.

We would also expect a by-law to contain a section specifying the laws that it replaces and the extent to which these are replaced.

It is striking that the City has no obligations under the By-Law. Chapter 2 is headed ‘Powers and Responsibilities of the City’ but not a single responsibility is listed under this Chapter. The Draft By-Law should, as a minimum, record the City’s obligation under Section 24 of the Constitution (the environmental right) and set out mechanisms to ensure that the City gives effect to that right, notably the promotion of social development through the encouragement of recreation.

In our view, the preamble should recognise the fact that the natural resources belong to the citizens of the City of Cape Town (as distinct from the City) and are managed by the City as custodian in the interests of its citizens with a view to ensuring that the maximum number of people derive the maximum benefit from those resources. Mac has been operating since before the Reserve was declared.