Princess Vlei Forum
  • Home
    • Recent events
  • About the Forum
    • What you can do
    • Join the Forum
    • Constitution
    • Supporting organisations
  • About Princess Vlei
    • Natural Heritage >
      • Bringing the Vlei back to life
      • Powered by Nature
      • Birds at Princess Vlei
    • Identity: The Soul of Princess Vlei >
      • First nations
      • Cicilia
      • History
      • Baptisms
    • The struggle for Princess Vlei >
      • Dressing the Princess
      • Red Flag Vlei
      • Pray for the Vlei
      • Bring a stone for the Princess
      • Youth Speak 4 the Princess
  • Our Vision
    • A Community Vision
    • Stakeholder list
  • Events & Projects
  • Donate
  • Young Guardians
    • Flight of Dreams
  • Contact
  • Articles

Vlei breathing.... Vlei Living

24/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Henrik Ernstson

24 October 2012


On October 6, Menngos hosted a Jazz concert to celebrate and honour Princess Vlei. This inspired the following article..
Can you play Princess Vlei? Can you bring her to life through the tunes of jazz? The drummer swirls tenderly across the cymbal, chip-chip on the hi-hat, and the gentle thumping on the base drum. Progressive rhythm, missing every
third back-beat and then allowing the trumpet to enter on a high note, which ripples the water of the vlei. The black singer's vocal cord brings in tension, for a moment, the swaying movement of the Erica bush, its whispering
communication with the soil is arrested in listening, together with the gathered crowd, on the jazz group playing. The group is trying out something. Experimenting if it is possible to bring the fynbos, the waters of the vlei, the pelicans searching for fish,  the pounding hearts of the humans, and their silent dead ones - to bring them all in communication, in vibration with the mixing of tunes and rhythms. This is a trick, but one that might fail. If it happens, it is felt. If not, anticipation will stay in mid-air until the band stops playing.

This is also what those involved in resisting the shopping centre and mobilizing the vlei are doing. Like a jazz band, they have crafted instruments and play them to touch people's hearts. They too are improvising, feeling their way in how to come together and shift into the next rhythmic section, searching for the way to pass on their message, and address and connect people and plants. Their practice of messaging is an experiment in delivering the complex and shifting rhythms and tunes of the value of the vlei, hoping to create resonance in pounding hearts, to strengthen their music and voices. In playing their jazz, they are trying to bring the dead alive, black, coloured, the Khoi and the San, so they can walk with dignity among us on the shores of the vlei: seeing, hearing, sensing the flowers, bushes, the birds chirping and the sun setting over Elephants Eye Cave.

With their instruments they are playing with the children to join and plant trees and flowers,‹and to weave giant dream catchers to evoke and provoke and make palpable a desire to keep the vlei alive. They are resurrecting it to its proper place among the many everydays that are spun in and through the vlei by those alive, and those dead. Their playing of jazz to resist the mall and bring about an alternative is moving outwards, radiating, jumping fences to enter new locations, from Grassy Park, Elfindale, Lavender Hill, to Simons Town and Johannesburg; and then, from there, their act of messaging is meeting people when they are on their way to work, upon entering a store to buy bread, when opening the newspaper, when listening to the radio, when visiting friends, or when walking at the side of the road.

The value of the vlei comes with jazz in progressive rhythms, missing every third back-beat to allow the trumpet to enter, and then the singer, the strong voice, that breaks through to ripple the surfaces of vleis and minds to bring in a feeling of value. This value resists being coded into simplistic protocols, but insists on your humanity to grasp it; a connection to past histories; to feelings of sorrow and joy, of melancholia, hope and pride.




Henrik Ernstson is a researcher at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town. He writes this in his personal capacity.
0 Comments

Questions for MEC Bredell

5/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Press Release 5 October 2012

The Princess Vlei Forum would like to respond to MEC Anton Bredell’s statement (quoted by Peter Luhanga in the West Cape News, 30/09/12) that the City “made a mistake” when it approved the shopping mall development on Princess Vlei in 2002 .
    We would firstly like to hail this acknowledgement as a victory for democracy. We are confident that it is only the unflagging determination by concerned citizens to protect this valuable heritage has persuaded the Minister to acknowledge this error of judgement. We trust that this is the first step in reversing the decision to support the mall development bid.

    However, we do have a number of queries and concerns:

  1. MEC Bredell vigorously defended his decision to overturn the recommendation by SPELUM that the rezoning of the property not be extended. This effectively reactivated the development bid, which had been scuppered by SPELUM’s decision. If he felt it was a mistake, why did he do this? If his thinking has shifted, what has caused him to change his mind?
  2. With reference to the following comment quoted in the article: “Bredell indicated the only way out for the City now was to either swap the land at Princess Vlei, which it still owned, with the company Insight Developers, or buy them out.”
  • What legal and/or financial obligations does the City have to developer, considering that the land has yet to be sold, needs to go through a public participation before being sold, and needs to be sold on the open market? We have been trying without success to obtain clarity on this point.
  • The development bid was made by Insight Property Developers(Cape), which was deregistered on 16 July 2010. It appears that the dealings are now with Insight Property Developers (Palmyra Rd), which has a different tax number and registration number. Since the original development agreement was made with a company that no longer exists, why should the City have any obligations to it, or to Insight Developers (Palmyra Rd) which is an entirely separate company?
  • Thirdly, any contract made with the company was done subject to the company meeting various conditions, including a favourable EIA report. Evidence uncovered by PVF member Kelvin Cochrane now suggests that this report may have been fraudulently obtained, as board members on the company doing the EIA (Tshukudu Environmental Services) were also on the board of the development bid company. Why would any contract made on this basis be legally binding?
  • Finally, if this contract is binding, why did the City enter into a binding contract on an unsolicited bid to sell publicly owned land? This does not sound like good local government practice. Surely if the City wished to develop the land, it should have put the tender out to public bidding.
    Cochrane has uncovered two major irregularities with the development bid process: Firstly, that members of the supposedly independent company doing the environmental impact assessment were serving on the board of the development bid company (Insight Development Cape). Secondly, as pointed out above, the company that made the unsolicited bid no longer exists. A different company appears to have improperly taken over the bid. MEC Bredell and the City have consistently asserted that proper procedures were followed with this development bid. We are confused as to how these irregularities were not identified by the relevant authorities from the beginning of the process, particularly in relation to such a contentious bid. (see our Press Release  dated 21 September)
    We would like to note that members of the City Council have consistently expressed unhappiness with this development bid, as demonstrated by SPELUM’s refusal to extend the rezoning. SPELUM made this call after reviewing the bid in the light of evidence brought by concerned residents, which highlighted the rich cultural, historical and environmental value of Princess Vlei.
    SPELUM’s response was an instance of local government doing its job: ie. taking into account the views of the public and making a decision for the greater good. It is most regrettable that this decision was then overturned by MEC Bredell. We hope that the recent decision by Mayor De Lille to limit the powers of SPELUM it is not an indication that the local government will be less transparent, responsive and accountable on planning decisions in the future.
    We believe that the gains made by the campaign to save Princess Vlei, and the irregularities uncovered by Cochrane, demonstrate the need for and power of a vigorous civil society to monitor the decisions of our public officials, ensure that they are responsive to the needs of our citizens, and ensure that they are fully transparent and accountable as they so often claim to be.
    We eagerly await a full and thorough investigation of these irregularities and trust that the City Council will be more transparent and accountable in its dealing of this matter than has been the case up to now.
    The Princess Vlei Forum, and the rehabilitation project Dressing the Princess, have enjoyed a collaborative relationship with relevant branches of Local Government, in particular in the Biodiversity Management Branch and Parks and Forestry. We are confident that the development bid will be defeated, and look forward to continuing this partnership to develop Princess Vlei in a culturally and environmentally appropriate and sensitive manner.
0 Comments

    Author

    Posts by Bridget Pitt unless otherwise stated.

    Archives

    December 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

About Princess Vlei Forum

Proudly powered by Weebly