This article has been updated to reflect extensive comment from the Poole’s Bay Resident’s Association.
A clifftop path is usually a place of quiet introspection. Not so in tourist-friendly Hermanus, where a simmering feud over the town’s clifftop ramble has erupted into a legal standoff.
The existing 13km concrete path makes an abrupt 1km detour along the busy main road away from a cluster of upmarket homes and apartments nestled around scenic Poole’s Bay.
For years the Cliff Path Action Group has proposed extending the concrete path right along the coast, to the dismay of affected homeowners.
This week the homeowners lodged an appeal against a Western Cape government decision last month to issue environmental approval for the proposed extended cliff path. The objector list includes Basil Hersov, the former head of the Anglovaal mining group and father of businessman Rob Hersov, who is a vocal critic of President Cyril Ramaphosa. In their submissions during the environmental impact process one of the objectors referred to the clifftop path supporters as a “band of brigands”.
The objectors are meanwhile accused of seeking to entrench their privileges to the detriment of the town.
Another name hovering over Poole’s Bay is Markus Jooste, who, along with his son-in-law, was a director of a company that owned a huge property since subdivided after approval by the Overstrand municipality. A fence jutting out from the subdivided property impedes people from accessing an informal path skirting the coast in front of the Poole’s Bay properties. Those wanting to use this path to continue along the coast – rather than the 1km detour - have to descend via a steep gully and then run the gauntlet of unhappy homeowners.
• 13km: Total length of the Hermanus cliff path
• 800m: The length of the main road detour around Poole's Bay
— In Numbers
“I’ve had one resident shake his fist at me and shout,” said Debbie Wynne from the Cliff Path Action Group. “We also placed blue posts along where the path will be as part of the public participation process for the environmental impact assessment and the residents of Poole’s Bay removed them - which is illegal,” Wynne said.
Last year the provincial government issued a directive for one of the private landowners to remove a balustrade erected to prevent people from walking along the informal path despite it being public land. But the balustrade is still there.
In their appeal document lodged this week, the cliff path objectors insist the plan is unsafe and potentially damaging to the environment. “The authorised Poole’s Bay pathway will present a high risk to public safety, health and wellbeing as the path will be unsafe for use during certain times of the year,” read the objectors’ appeal, submitted on Thursday to the provincial government.
The document highlights the risk of storm surges and rogue waves and references recent deaths, including that of rugby star Breyton Paulse’s mother, who was washed off the wall of the Hermanus Old Harbour. “Considering the frequent impact of the coastal action directed straight at the path infrastructure it will further result in frequent damage, high maintenance routines, costs and deaths,” the appeal reads. Due to the expected influx of path users affected homeowners would most likely erect security fences, thereby “making it difficult or impossible for people on the path to escape unexpectedly high waves”.
The path overlooking Walker Bay is considered one of the country’s best whale-viewing locations. It also passes restaurants and beaches. As such the 1km detour makes no sense, says Cliff Top Path Action Group chair Jobre Stassen. “Why walk along a narrow, dangerous and noisy sidewalk if you can walk next to the sea?” she said in response to queries.
“The town has been kept ransom for too long - it is time to connect the cliff path as if it's always been connected. The topography is such that the route will be similar in character to the path between Kwaaiwater and Grotto - undulating steps over rocky terrain. Elevated structures need to compensate in areas where high cliffs drop into the sea.”
The Cliff Top Action Group is challenging the subdivision of the “Jooste” property in the Western Cape High Court on the grounds that it discounts public access to the coast.
The Overstrand municipality declined to comment, saying the matter was sub judice. However, at a public engagement last month, Overstrand executive mayor Annelie Rabie said: “I support the upgrading and connection of the path provided it complies with the legal requirements, is safe and does not adversely affect the rights of the adjacent properties.”
The municipality said it had no obligation to provide a servitude across private properties to allow for coastal access – a matter likely to arise during the court challenge.
Stassen said the proposed extension would be of public benefit for generations to come. “The Cliff Path Action Group applauds homeowners of Poole’s Bay who are co-operative with the cliff path project, trying to find solutions with the best interest of Hermanus in mind. Change, by nature, is uncomfortable, but we also can’t be trapped in the past.”
The Hersov family could not be reached for comment. However, their consultant in the objection process, Paul Slabbert, said: “If a path exists people will use it and most people do not understand the ocean, let alone tides and swell, therefore out of the thousands of people using the cliff path it’s inevitable that someone will be washed off the path due to its proximity to the sea.”
In its environmental authorisation the provincial government concluded: “Any potentially detrimental environmental impacts resulting from the listed activities can be mitigated to acceptable levels.”
The Poole’s Bay Resident’s Association responds : Why we oppose clifftop path development in Hermanus
We write in response to “Battle lines harden in feud over Hermanus’s clifftop path” (December 11).
The appeal against the development of an 800m stretch of cliff path by the Poole’s Bay Residents Association (PBR) hinges on three objective points conveniently overlooked by the Hermanus Cliff Path Action Group (CPAG).
The first is the matter of access. Properties along the disputed stretch of shoreline have as their legal sea-facing boundaries the high-water mark. All members of the public have historically had open access to this piece of coast. No resident has ever denied public access to Poole’s Bay, nor has any resident erected a “barricade” to prevent such access. Local fishermen, walkers, famlies and snorkellers have enjoyed the bay for decades, and will continue to do so without hindrance from property owners.
The second point of the PBR appeal is the issue of safety. The CPAG proposal overlooks all risks associated with building in a “high-risk zone”. The zoned area reaches well beyond most of the property boundaries, incorporating areas of private property well above the high-water mark. Poole’s Bay is particularly prone to devastating storm surges and storm-wave run-up.
Thirdly, how sustainable will such a development be?
The CPAG proposal includes mention of concrete and wooden structures to be built below the high-water mark. But it does not advance a plan for maintenance, or how this maintenance will be funded in future.
That the development will proceed is clearly assumed by the CPAG. Its members have already taken it on themselves to cut away protected foliage along the pathways leading to the pebble beach of Poole’s Bay, and to deface public property. Sensitivity to the environment, it seems, is hardly a concern of the CPAG.
The contentions by the PBR are straightforward. We are not opposed to public access to the disputed areas, and never have been. But we are vehemently opposed to a development that will certainly endanger the public while negatively affecting the local ecosystem, and one that risks being implemented with no view on maintenance or the funding required to prevent the structure from becoming a derelict and dangerous eyesore in future.
The Poole’s Bay Resident’s Association, Hermanus
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