petition | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Cape Town and Western Cape tourism authorities are outraged by the arbitrary changes which have been made in the newly promulgated Immigration Regulations 2014, especially those pertaining to child tourists, and the effect that this is having already on tourism to our city and province. The implementation of the Regulations has been delayed from 1 July to 1 October, as a result of the uproar it has generated.

The new Immigration regulations require parents to travel with the unabridged birth certificate of each child, the only country in the world to require this documentation for travel to another country. The process of acquiring such a document is a lengthy one, one mother writing on Facebook that she had just collected hers from the Malmesbury offices of the Department of Home Affairs after a 13 month waiting period. This branch is the most efficient at such applications, she had been advised. The regulations also require the second parent to agree to the foreign travel by the child if that parent is not part of the travel party.

In addition, the new regulations require that visas be applied for outside the country, which would make Continue reading →

The Chairman of the Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), and also Chairman of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, Clinton Lerm, has done an about-turn in his support of an anti-nuclear power plant campaign in the area of his jurisdiction, reports the Cape Times.

The two proposed ESKOM nuclear power stations are to be built at Bantamsklip, 4 km from Buffelsjagsbaai and 6 km from Pearly Beach, on the Cape Whale Coast beyond Gansbaai. The “site lies within the hottest internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot”, the Save Bantamsklip website says, and is regarded as a SA Natural Heritage Site and is a Historic Monument. It is adjacent to Dyer Island Nature Reserve, breeding ground of the penguins, and to the Great White Shark Marine Sanctuary.

Tourism and marine life conservation bodies have been up in arms about the proposed nuclear plant, and Lerm in November expressed his support on behalf of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau to the Save Bantamsklip awareness campaign. Furthermore he pledged R 1 000 to the campaign, and offered his services and those of his members to participate in a march against the proposed power plant in December, at which time a petition opposing the construction of the power plants was delivered to the Overstrand Municipality in Hermanus. The petition was signed by the Managers of the Hermanus and Gansbaai tourism bureaus, which report to the DMO.

Now Lerm has withdrawn his support of the campaign, after he was called to a meeting with the Mayor of the Overstrand Municipality, the R 2,5 million funder of the Cape Whale Coast DMO.

Last week the Mayor of the Overstrand, Theo Beyleveldt, released a statement to state that “his inquiries had found Save Bantamsklip had been “dishonest” in claiming that several organisations had supported its views. Beyleveldt claimed that Dyer Island Cruises had also turned against the Save Bantamsklip campaign, but its head Wilfred Chivell angrily negated this, saying :”There is no way I will back off from supporting Save Bantamsklip. This nuclear power station will be horrible for tourism and I will fight this menace”! Chivell is a founder member of Save Bantamsklip.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com