Saturday, July 28, 2012

iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority side step ICMA

The IWPA iSimangaliso wetland Park Authority are busy doing many things within the Elephant Coast Tourism region, some good, some not so good, and some blatantly bad for the local residents, many without following the proper procedures as defined in the acts, laws and regulations that govern their mandate as custodians of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site.

The MSA (Municipal Systems Act) mandates all government departments and all   state appointed parties to participate in the local municipalities Integrated Development Plans where ever they are. The ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act)  mandates all parties involved in coastal management to have ICMP (Integrated Coastal Management Plans) which are supposed to be Integrated with the Local Municipalities IDP (Integrated Development Plan)

The 4x4 BAN ( 4x4 BAN) also mandates the IWPA (iSimangaliso wetland park Authority to create and implement an EMP (Environmental Management Plan) with zones and zoning for various uses. These zones are supposed to be reflected in the local municipalities zoning maps as per directives in the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act) 

The whole  chapter 5 of the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act)  is problematic as far as  the management issues relating to beach driving and lost tourism associated with the absence of recreational beach users is concerned, and the fact that no (ZERO) public participation meetings relating to the tourism impact of this legislation have been held, and the relating economic studies have not been undertaken, or if they have they are extremely flawed or falsified as the collapse of the domestic tourism market has never been discussed at any of the Mtubatuba IDP (Integrated Development Plan) meetings , because the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has not produced or discussed any of these issues at any of the Mtubatuba Integrated Development Plan Public Representative forum meetings, which can be verified by reading the minutes of the meetings held over the last 8 years. I know this because I tried to raise these issues at the Mtubatuba IDP PRF (Integrated Development Plan Public Representative Forum) meetings, and the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) never produced requested documents and tried their utmost to disrupt the free-flow of information.

Chapter 6 part 4 of the ICMA (Integrated Coastal management Act) is of concern to us as the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is clearly sidestepping clauses 51 and 52 of the ICMA (Integrated Coastal Management Act)
 
Chapter 6 part 5 clause 53 of the ICMA is of prime interest to us as the IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) has failed miserably to implement this in any shape manner or form, and some disciplinary action needs to be taken against them at parliamentary level

Register as a concerned citizen or an interested and affected party at the September 30  Public participation process meeting to be held in St. Lucia where these items will be raised.



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