The Department for Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has extended an invitation to potential users wanting to lease space at the Hout Bay Harbour “to come to the party”.
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala, was scheduled to undertake a site visit to the harbour on Thursday 4 May, but, having been called to a last-minute meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, the crowd of stakeholders gathered at Snoekies were instead addressed by the ministry’s deputy director general Nkosana Kubeka and deputy director Nyeleti Makhubele.
According to Kubeka, the purpose of the visit was to establish progress, to get a briefing on areas that needed immediate attention as well as to map a way forward on resolving some of the challenges at the harbour such as vandalism, poaching, “possible” human trafficking and bottlenecks surrounding leases.
At present, there are 45 tenants who are leasing premises at the harbour on a month-to-month basis.
Speaking at the site visit, Kubeka shared that the process to standardise lease agreements of the ministry’s 80 000 facilities across 11 regions had now been finalised and that they were ready to move ahead on signing long-term leases.
As to the rates that would be charged, he said that as per the National Treasury’s instruction, these would be market-related but that nominal rates could be negotiated, depending on the reasons given by and the financial statements of those requesting nominal rates. Kubeka said that National Treasury would have to sign off on these negotiations.
Makhubele added that, in addition to the lots that are currently being leased, there were a further 24 available spaces for local business.
She encouraged those interested to reach out to the department’s regional office.
Gregg Louw is an approved operator of one of the four seal island charter businesses at Hout Bay Harbour. He is also the chair of both the Peace and Mediation Forum and the Hout Bay Aquaculture Farmers Secondary Co-operative in Hangberg.
Speaking to People’s Post after the site visit, Louw said that opportunities for Hout Bay’s disadvantaged communities – Hangberg and Imizamo Yethu (IY) – to enter mainstream economy were severely lacking.
“For example, the co-op represents 150 households that are purely dependent on poaching. And we are saying that we want to be formerly brought into the industry. DEFF (Department of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries) has given us the support as well as earmarked a pilot project for this abalone farming to assist the poachers in walking away from the negative economy. Now we are saying, it is good and well you have given us this opportunity but yet we don’t have facilities and that is where DPWI comes in,” said Louw.
Another one of Louw’s many hats is that of being the economic coordinator of the Hangberg leadership.
“My job is always to look for opportunities to bring our community into the mainstream public economy and the harbour is one of the main anchors of that.”
He said they had walked a long road with DPWI which, after many years, had failed to bear fruit.
“The issue of access, IY people and Hangberg people being given the opportunity of leasing space on this harbour, to do business on this harbour – that didn’t happen. The month-to-month leases and new leases coming in, for the past 12 years didn’t happen. Of the leases here in the harbour, there are only six non-whites;, there are zero black people being given an opportunity on this harbour.”
He says, given the way things stand, transformation seems unlikely.
“And here we are talking about market-related prices, our people will never be given the opportunity to come into this harbour because they will never make it. They are starting a business, they have just started off, yet they will be killed by rentals.”
Stating the concerns of the Hout Bay Harbour Tenant Association during the site visit, chair Jason Strong said that the one-and-half-day notice given to those stakeholders, who were fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the public engagement, was not enough time.
According to Strong, the association (consisting of 21 tenants) was formed because there had been a lack of action and too much confusion from the government’s side.
“We needed to get a degree of unity, that we had a single voice that could have an audience with the relevant people,” he said.
Strong is also a shareholder of Snoekies, a destination site in Hout Bay which has served crispy-battered fish and chip takeaway meals for the past 80 years. Today the business includes four other outlets in the Cape.
Strong said Snoekies had been a tenant at the harbour since 1953. At present, they lease three plots. He said they had been on a month-to-month lease since May last year.
“And the security of a long-term lease we haven’t had for the past seven years.”
He said they had been promised a long-term lease. “The only basis was that we had to apply before a certain time, which we did, and we had to pay market-related rental. We engaged the department for what is market-related rentals so that we can renew the long-term leas and we received nothing back. That was seven years ago. And now, apparently, they have figured out what market-related rental is.”
Strong explained that any investment into a property that was being leased on a month-to-month basis came with too much risk.
“For Snoekies, we are about to spend R4 million on a solar installation and battery inverter pack, so we can run. We are tremendously concerned about the future of the country’s energy supply and if there is a blackout. I’ve been told it takes about two to three weeks to start up the grid again, so we need to be completely independent and that is a R4 investment. You cannot invest R4 million in a business when you are on a month-to-month lease, it is as simple as that.”
He added that of the buildings that Snoekies were occupying, there were portions that needed to be developed but couldn’t.
“Because it is too costly. We have to replace all the roofing because it is asbestos; that is millions. You can’t do that on a month-to-month lease. The government can turn around right now and say to Snoekies to leave tomorrow. We have been here for over 80 years, we have about 90 staff. It is madness.”
