Warwick Bruce Chapman

NOTE: This statement is here because I played a role in creating it while eThekwini Campaign Manager in the 2011 Local Government Elections.

Holiday seasons offer our city a prime opportunity to put its best foot forward and show visitors what we have to offer and in so doing, encourage them to keep coming back. The unsightly construction work taking place on the prime promenade, the Golden Mile, a week before the Easter break does exactly the opposite. After a walkabout yesterday to inspect the readiness of the beachfront for the holidays, I was met by incomplete construction work, untrimmed vegetation and dying palm trees and still empty restaurants built before the World Cup. Our beachfront is sorely in need of the proper management and attention to detail which can make it the best holiday location in the country.

The Golden Mile is eThekwini’s best asset for marketing the City. Our sandy beaches, warm ocean temperatures and tropical climate mean that we have the perfect ingredients for a year-round and world-class tourism product. What we don’t have right now is the commitment and co-ordination by the city council to ensure that we leverage these ingredients into a recipe for real success. A successfully managed, safe and polished beachfront will attract increasing numbers of tourists to Durban every year, increasing economic growth and job creation.

The DA-run city of Cape Town enjoys a large market share of the local and international tourist trade precisely because it has developed itself as a tourist centered city committed to offering all visitors a safe, enjoyable and memorable stay. Cape Town has recognized that tourism holds massive potential for employment opportunities and economic development and attracts large amounts of foreign and local revenue into the city helping to stimulate the local economy.

Under a DA led administration we will ensure that maintenance and upgrading of our key tourist assets is regular and planned outside of key holiday periods. Our tourism assets across the city will all be included in a detailed asset register and will be set down for scheduled inspection on a regular basis. This will ensure that any construction will cause the minimum disruption to both tourists and locals alike. The development of sustainable ‘new’ tourism initiatives in other parts of the City will be prioritised. Township, rural and adventure tourism potential in eThekwini presents major growth and job opportunities but require professional development support and ongoing management of the greater tourism environment by the City.

The DA-run city of Cape Town has shown that a focused and organized commitment to developing tourism assets yields big dividends as more visitors flock to the city. There is no reason why we cannot do the same here in eThekwini. I will commit our DA administration to delivering on the potential which our beautiful city offers and place us at the apex of tourism destinations where we rightfully belong.

NOTE: This statement is here because I played a role in creating it while eThekwini Campaign Manager in the 2011 Local Government Elections.

The DA: You deserve clean, safe communities you can be proud to live in

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Democratic Alliance eThekwini Mayoral candidate, Ronnie Veeran and his team descended on Lenham in Phoenix today to kick off the DA’s Civic Pride Campaign.

In the face of the failure of the eThekweni Municipality to properly maintain the area, the DA Mayoral Candidate lead a team of supporters and community members in a cleanup of the Rucklen Place flats.

Residents have complained for many months about council’s inability to maintain the public open spaces in the area. Grass verges have not been cut for many months, refuse and rubble is dumped indiscriminately and broken glass makes it dangerous for children and pedestrians.

Cllr Veeran lead a team which cleaned up the area around Rucklen Place, cutting and raking grass verges, collecting litter and picking up broken glass.

The DA believes that municipal maintenance of our built and green environment must be properly managed in order to ensure a clean and safe space for people to live and work. Untidy and dirty public spaces also make criminals feel welcome in our communities. We deserve clean, well maintained spaces where criminals feel uncomfortable operating,and where children and pedestrians feel safe to play and move in their communities.

In the City of Cape Town, the DA has focused on creating safer communities by focussing on good planning, improved maintenance and the delivery of new infrastructure. Khayelitsha is South Africa’s third largest township and was notoriously poorly planned and devoid of community infrastructure. The City of Cape Town under DA governance has changed both the urban landscape and the lives of ordinary people in Khayelitsha.

Focusing on four ‘safe nodes’ in the community, neatly paved walkways, regularly spaced streetlamps, public squares and multi-functional modern public buildings have replaced informal sprawl. The maintenance of these and other public spaces is well managed and creates a cleaner, safer environment than existed before.

The residents of Phoenix and every other community in South Africa deserve safe, clean communities. A DA government in eThekwini would ensure that capable officials would drive a programme of cleaning, maintenance and rolling out new infrstructure to make our communities safer and cleaner to live in.

I have arranged that Metro Police and the Parks Department clear out the fireplaces and collected items brought into the park by vagrants (again) during the week and also have asked the Engineers to clear the rubble by the river from the park. All of this should be good preparation for the community to turn out in force to clean the park.

I will provide bags and gloves to those who cannot bring their own. I ask residents and volunteers to bring lots of water with them and some tough shoes. The cleanup will start at 09h00 and finished when we run out of steam, bags or rubbish (whichever comes first).

I have read comments and/or requests from several members of the community in the local media that something be done about the Park – let’s get together on Sunday and do something about it.

The Crompton Park is opposite the Life Crompton Hospital and bounded by Crompton and Sunnyside as per the map below.

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094

Note: This was updated and published on 8 January in the Highway Mail as an article instead of a letter.

Dear Editor

Pinetown will be the focus of my attention in Ward 18 for 2010 and quite possibly the years to follow. Infrastructure maintenance remains a priority in the ward and though significant progress has been made in 2009, Pinetown has a long way to go in this regard. Additionally, I believe that the town was never designed for the extent to which it is currently pedestrianised and I will be focusing on formalising the many footpaths which cut through green areas in Pinetown. An example of this can already be seen in the work in progress in the front of the Pinetown Civic Centre where the disused concrete walkway is being cleaned up and and made more presentable and the footpath from Crompton Street to Old Main Rd will be paved as soon as funds become available.

Further to the infrastructural and pedestrian issues, the Pinetown Precint Plan which incorporates wide ranging proposals to revitalise the CBD of Pinetown will be tabled before the eThekwini Economic Development and Planning committee in the first meeting of 2010. I am hoping the plan, which has been many years in the making, will be approved at the meeting, allowing us to present it to the greater Pinetown community for comment.

Crime in Pinetown and the surrounding areas is a major concern and while Councillors are not empowered to influence the fight against crime directly, I am confident that slowly but surely “cleaning up Pinetown” has to make a difference.  We need to ensure infrastructure maintenance is prioritised, parks and gardens and tended to, buildings are painted, windows are fixed, paths are formalised and, in general, the area is revitalised.  I am firmly of the belief that criminals do not thrive in well maintained areas.  Crime loves grime – we need to get rid of the grime.

Additionally, I will be working with SAPS and Metro police to prioritise the policing of minor transgressions such as urinating in public, ignoring rules in parks and traffic violations.  The major crimes must be investigated and are always the top priority but it is high time that chancers and petty criminals learned early on that crime doesn’t pay.  I urge all residents to assist in the fight against crime and get involved in your local Community Policing Forum.

As always, residents are welcome to contact me should they have any municipal issues they have not been able to resolve through the normal channels.

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com