Grahamstown | Tuesday
THE SA Shore Angling Association (Sasaa) and the small community of Oyster Bay near Cape St Francis have brought an urgent court challenge to the regulations banning the use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) on the beach.
The Sasaa and the Oyster Bay Ratepayers Association (Obra) have applied to the Port Elizabeth High Court to have the regulations declared unlawful, unconstitutional, and null and void.
Alternatively they have asked the court to interdict Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa from enforcing the regulations until their application is finalised.
In court papers, the Sasaa chairman Henri Melville said the application was urgent as the ban had enormous financial implications for the association and those who are to take part in organised angling events.
These included the National Masters Competition at Jeffrey’s Bay on January 31, and the South African Senior Championships in East London on March 3.
He said it would be ”virtually impossible” to fish the inaccessible beaches where these competitions take place unless their vehicles could go onto the beach.
Melville, who has represented South African national shore angling sides since 1973, said the association and its affiliates fished competitively on various beaches in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern and Western Cape, stretching over several hundred kilometres.
”Some of the beaches have extremely limited access from national roads and therefore are only accessible to shore anglers by means of vehicles…”
The Sasa claimed the regulations banning vehicle use on beaches were promulgated unlawfully and in conflict with a number of laws.
It said that in common law beaches were public property and government acted only as custodians. In terms of the Sea Shore Act only the Minister of Transport, and not the Minister of Environmental Affairs, had the authority to regulate the sea shore.
Melville said Moosa had also failed to follow procedures spelt out in the National Environmental Management Act, including ”assessments, evaluations and potential impact studies” before promulgating the regulations. This rendered them null and void.
The Sasaa will also argue that the regulations are unconstitutional.
The Obra chairman, Hendrik Franzsen, said in an affidavit that many retired people resided at Oyster Bay and due to age or physical disabilities could not walk to the nearest safe swimming spot which required a six kilometre beach drive.
He claimed the regulations discriminated against people who were not physically able to walk that distance. He feared that if no vehicles were allowed on the beach, tourism would drop off, leaving Oyster Bay to ”bleed to death”. – Sapa