The SA Shore Angling Association and the community of Oyster Bay – near Cape St Francis – are refusing to accept the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister’s ban of 4×4 vehicles on beaches and are challenging it in court.
The SA Shore Angling Association (SASAA) and the community of Oyster Bay – near Cape St Francis – are refusing to accept the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister’s ban of 4×4 vehicles on beaches and are challenging it in court.
The angling association and the Oyster Bay Ratepayers Association have applied to the Port Elizabeth High Court to have the regulations declared unlawful, unconstitutional, and null and void. The group said the ban had huge financial implications for them.
They have also asked the court to interdict Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa from enforcing the regulations until their application is finalised.
SASAA chairman Henri Melville said they had gone to court because it had severe implications for the angling competitions the association arranged. “Some of the beaches have extremely limited access from national roads and therefore are only accessible to shore anglers by means of vehicles,” he said.
The association fished competitively on various beaches stretching over several hundred kilometres in the Western and Eastern Cape as well as KwaZulu-Natal.
The community of Oyster Bay said it was challenging the ban because many of its residents were retired and due to age and physical disabilities could not walk the 6 km distance down to the beach. Oyster Bay Ratepayers Association chairman Hendrik Franzsen said the regulations discriminated against people who were not physically able to walk that distance and would have a negative effect on tourism in the area.
Melville said the ban was unlawful because according to common law, beaches were public property and the 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.
He said the minister had also not followed the procedures of the National Environmental Management Act, which states that “assessments, evaluations and potential impact studies” had to be done before introducing the regulations.
The minister’s office said on Tuesday that Valli Moosa is on official business in Indonesia and will wait until his return late on Wednesday before commenting.
