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The Greater St. Lucia wetlands park and the Elephant Coast of KZN South Africa depend on the passing trade generated from local tourism, especially that associated with the use of the coastal zone for the basic income of many rural people involved in the arts and crafts manufacturing sector, living on the out skirts of the GSLWP WHS or Greater St. Lucia wetlands park world heritage site.
Many of those visiting the St. Lucia region did so purely because there was access to the coastal zone. Now that there is no reasonable access to this natural resource, most of the people who were traditional users of the coastal zone see no reason to come to the elephant Coast at all. Because various user groups such as anglers, snorkeling enthusiasts and others are no longer visiting our area those persons who were dependant on the passing trade associated with these groups, now have a significantly smaller customer base thus leaving many people in the informal sector indigent. When one gathers the facts and looks at them clearly it will be seen that the so called 4x4 ban is in fact a clear infringement of our basic rights in terms of section 24 part (b) sub section iii of the South African Constitution which statesEveryone has the right to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations through reasonable legislative and other measures that secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. Clearly the justifiable economic opportunities which were sustained by local tourism associated with the use of the coastal zone has been removed from the rural populations of Mtubatuba municipality and adjacent areas, who have lost a large portion of their customer base. This has left a rather large number of people within the Umkhanyakude District Municipality, including
indigent, and unable to look after their own economic needs. This is not an unexpected scenario as a study done by on behalf of the GSLWPA (Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Authority) in preparation for the legislation passed under the Act ( 107 of 1998), during the last half of 2002, clearly stated that unless some form of access to the coastal zone be given to beach users in the form of motor vehicle access, there would be economic losses in both the formal and informal tourism markets of Umkhanyakude District Municipality. Those in power at GSLWPA (Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park) and Umkhanyakude District Municipality, chose to ignore the AccerAfrica study, and the result is a very significant drop in the number of South African Citizens visiting Umkhanyakude District Municipality with the coastal zone becoming relatively deserted, as few people are willing to walk the very long distances now required to access the natural resources of the coastal zone, the ocean and the wide open spiritual spaces of the coastal zone. This scenario is clearly an infringement, if not a violation of the basic rights of these communities to benefit in a reasonable and justifiable economic manner from the use of the natural resources of the coastal zone, as is laid out in Chapter 2,section 24, of the constitution of the republic of South Africa. Help us combat this nasty piece of legislation which is crippling the GSLWP (Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park) and Elephant Coast local tourism industry. |
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