CHAPTER 5: CONTEXT AND THE CASE STUDIES
5.4 Case Study Two: Vetch‘s Beach along the Durban Inner-city coastal area
84 as a futuristic development with the potential to compete with other world-class theme park urban renewal projects. It was intended to create an image and international impression that Durban could compete with foreign countries in developing a grand ocean-side theme park destination (Durban Point Waterfront Website, 2007).
In the context of South African urban renewal projects, it is a development that has been designed with effort so that Durban could also have a waterfront that could be compared to and would compete with the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town (Grant & Scott, 1996). The city was enthusiastic in promoting and ensuring the success of the project as it offered the promise of large capital investment and would enhance the multiplier effect for Durban.
However, the developers had not foreseen an impediment to the development of the Point Precinct. The proposal of the small craft harbour was a prime aspect of the waterfront development as its aim was to create an ―internationally competitive marina facility‖ that could also compete on the world stage and attract investment to the city (Scott, 2006: i).
However, there has been serious objection to the proposal of a small craft harbour at Vetch‘s Beach, the beach located below the Point Development. Vetch‘s Beach is a very important public space that is protected by the public and the expansion of the project would reduce the valuable public space that may be accessed by the public. This extension of development would encroach upon Vetch‘s Beach and the beach as a public space, and a treasured public asset, would cease to exist.
5.4 Case Study Two: Vetch’s Beach along the Durban Inner-city coastal
85 Figure 6: Taken by researcher: Photograph of Vetch‘s Beach taken on the 20/11/2014 In August 2009, after a six year battle, the Department of Environmental Affairs gave authorisation to the Durban Point Development Company to construct a small craft harbour at Vetch‘s Beach. The public were in dispute over the project, as they believed that rate-payers‘
money was going to be used to fund the development. It is the province‘s most intensively- used and safest government-appointed launch site, and is the home of many water sports clubs since its establishment in the mid-1950s. These clubs were formed by the public and are being run by club members without receiving funding or financial assistance from the city or the government. The Vetch‘s Beach launch site has provided recreational facilities for the public.
The recreational activity at the beach is said to provide over R500 million annually to the GDP of Durban.
Vetch‘s Beach has been in existence since the mid-19th century and is one of the largest sub- tidal mussel beds on the entire KZN Coastline, hosting an estimated 85 tons of mussels. It is also the home of millions of other marine creatures which help sustain the food-chain on our beachfront. This has made Vetch‘s Pier a very popular snorkelling hot-spot for all divers in
86 the city. It is also used by recreational and subsistence fishermen. They use the public space on a daily basis to catch fish, and there is no other place in the city where the fisherman can go and expect to catch the same specimens. The beach also provides perfect conditions for windsurfers, paddlers, learner surfers and many other water sport activities. These activities would not be permitted if Vetch‘s Beach was privatised and developed into a small craft harbour.
Vetch‘s Beach was originally a project proposed by Captain James Vetch that failed at a cost of more than 165 000 (Bender, 1988). It was built in order to help solve the problem of the shifting sandbar at the entrance of the port of Natal, but that project failed. It failed because the sandbar was been minimised to allow for the widening of the port until recently. A curved rocky pier exists which currently draws a plethora of marine life and is a popular spot for diving as well as fishing (Scott, 2006). It is a protected area, yet fishers still use the site.
Vetch‘s Beach is the area where, historically, seine netters used to launch their boats as the waters were calm and safe due to the shelter that Vetch‘s Pier provides. The seine netters were the first to settle and occupy the area of Vetch‘s from the early 1800s (Scott, 2006) and it is still used today by the seine netters, as well as other fishers who fish from the shore. Sports clubs such as the Durban Paddle Ski club and the Durban Underwater Club were established in the 1950s. Vetch‘s became a protected launch-site as many public users used the beach for recreational purposes. For the community and clubs that have occupied and use Vetch‘s beach, it has huge historical value (Scott, 2006).
Development has wanted to expand from uShaka Marine World northwards onto Vetch‘s Beach, above the shoreline, before the high-water mark. As mentioned in the previous section, a small craft harbour was proposed to extend from uShaka Marine world, onto Vetch‘s Beach.
This project was initiated by the Point Development Company in co-operation with the eThekwini Municipality. The small craft harbour was proposed in 2008 to occupy the public space at Vetch‘s Beach although Vetch‘s Pier and Beach along the Golden Mile has been a historical public space that has been treasured and preserved by the public for decades. The
―Save Vetch‘s Association‖ is a non-profit group that has been trying to preserve Vetch‘s Beach as a public space, which they have desired to be accessible to the many people who have used and still use it as a recreational, sports facility and boating and fishing hotspot for decades. However the planning proposal of a small craft harbour at Vetch‘s Beach is a crucial
87 part of the development within the Point Town planning project. This development, however, was objected to since it has to expand from the Point Precinct onto Vetch‘s Beach. This would then result in the reduction of the public space that the beach provides and it has caused a serious concern since 2005.
Vetch‘s Beach would cease to exist as a public space and the public would not be able to access it for the purposes for which they currently use it, such as water sports, recreation, relaxation and fishing. The Point Development was criticised by the public and the Save Vetch‘s Association and its action was recognized as having a severe impact on the environmental sustainability of the area. Development on the beach would result in the loss of access to the public space of Vetch‘s Beach and Vetch‘s Pier (Scott, 2006) but also in the biophysical and environmental destruction of a natural public space. Thus this proposal was not accepted by the public and it remains to be seen what the outcome is for the future of the development when the plans are finalised through negotiations between the public and the developers.