Friday, October 18, 2019

St. Lucia Estuary Management Plan and the iSimangaliso wetland Park Authority

The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ( IWPA ) is the  government appointed legal entity put in place in terms of the World Heritage convention Act.

The original appointee was the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park Authority, and the name change ( for marketing purposes) has confused many folks, allowing the IWPA to usurp a whole range of powers and functions which they should not have in the first place.

The IWPA as the legal custodians of the iSimangaliso Wetland park World Heritage Site inherited all the below listed items and many others when the Authority was renamed

  • Duties 
  • Obligations
  • Functions
  •  Rights 
  •  Legal  responsibilities

 These above mentioned issues are not to be confused with normal working issues or conditions of any legal entity, and the IWPA is not a special body which is above the law as they would have you believe. The IWPA is currently acting and behaving in a very unacceptable manner, bullying the Umkhanyakude District municipality and it's Local municipalities in many strange and devious ways, making it extremely difficult to get things done within the Umkhanyakude District Municipality tourism industry and related economic spaces

The main issue for me personally is the current ( October 2019 ) situation surrounding the management of the St. Lucia estuary and surrounding waterways. The IWPA have adopted a " Let nature take its course attitude" and this is causing many true economic hardships to unravel within Umkhanyakude District Municipality.


EDIT : 2 November 2019 ----  I discovered this link to a plan which appears to be an Estuary Management Plan for the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority here.  there are no dates, or addresses so not sure about this, but .....   They do not respond to my emails from the email addy admin@info4u.co.za   so   perhaps you can contact them and ask if this is an official plan or what is the story....


The folks on the ground who were dependent on the fish, prawns and other renewable resources supplied by the lake and surrounding waterways are in real serious economic distress. The Domestic tourism industry is about to have a total melt down, as the tourism connected to the biological functioning of the St. Lucia lake systems and associated waterways is missing from the Umkhanyakude District Municipality economic opportunity base.

The 4u2fish campaign has thus taken a legal view on these issues, and is in the process of taking legal actions against the IWPA.   It al starts with an #openLetter to the IWPA requesting elementary and basic information through the mandated public participation process meetings, as dictated in the national environmental management act , and subsurvient legislations such as the  integrated coastal management act.

What are your views .... ????

Please use the comments below to air your views.

Please share this further so that we may expand the conversation to include the relevant folks, and find a workable solution.

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish Campaign


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