If I am correct, DAFF or Public works, have pulled the contract for the cleaning of Hout Bay Harbor. I think it was most likely the possible fact that the account fell way into arrears and subsequently closed by the operators. (I stand to be corrected of course) Regardless, the harbor's waste and refuse pile up like termite mounds dotting the horizon on the African plane...As a tourist attraction this is completely unacceptable?
The various vessel owners supposedly pay their annual berthing fees and harbor usage fees to the Department and in return are entitled access to prepaid electricity (when the cables aren't stolen), water (when the pipes aren't stolen) and refuse removal (when its collected). So the harbor users pay levies that is being happily collected and therefore should in theory allow for such a budget to adequately clean the harbor?
Engine & gearbox oil littering and polluting the quayside. This oil spill made its way into the water (swimming pool).
Engine & gearbox oil littering and polluting the quayside. This oil spill made its way into the water (swimming pool).
The water pollution in the harbor itself is completely unacceptable with flotsam accumulating in various nooks and crannies of the Hout Bay Height's (Hangberg Community) swimming pool. Whatever happened to that old bullet who used to motor around in his small modified " Blue Bottle" scooping up and doing away with the pollution in the water? He did it out of his own generosity and therefore money well spent from the Department's perspective!
So instead of pointing fingers at various capable departments, I propose a solution that is standing right in front of our very noses all this time! Since a few months back, Desmond Stephens in his infinite wisdom appointed his comrades the Umkhonto we Sizwe as the security/ enforcing detail to prevent vessels from fishing without their respective permits. They vigilantly patrol the area from inside their inspectors office only to surface when the hake long liners offload and like rats they come scurrying alongside asking for that three-lettered-swear-word-to-all-vessel-owners: "FRY." I wonder how much they get paid? Surely we could bolster their pay checks with the added responsibility of cleaning the toilets (the same toilets where the swimming pool is) and collecting the accumulated refuse at the various dustbins littered around the harbor?
Surely they can use their spear to poke and prod all the litter up? After all, this harbor is or was probably the most scenic and picturesque in the western cape.
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