Clifton’s ‘lifesavers’ reclaim beach in a friendly way —
Homeless people included in project that replaces heavy-handed security
● A plan to clean up Clifton’s troubled beaches has blossomed into a ground-breaking neighbourhood improvement project led by several prominent South Africans.
Instead of armed security chasing people off the Cape Town suburb’s famous white beaches, residents are funding job creation for people who used to live in the bushes and on the street — and who now help clean the beaches and keep them safe.
Springbok rugby legend Francois Pienaar and former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs are two of the star-studded Clifton homeowners helping to transform a place of exclusive privilege into a model of social harmony.
The Clifton city improvement district (CID) programme, which started four months ago, has so far collected more than six tonnes of beach litter and uplifted seven local homeless people who now help maintain the area as CID community stewards.
Parts of the suburb are being “greened”, and the group says the crime rate has dropped dramatically. In December CID monitors confiscated 900 units of alcohol on the beaches.
The programme’s success is in stark contrast to 2019 when parliament held an inquiry into alleged racism on Clifton Fourth Beach after it had been closed by aggressive private security officers.
Then ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs was among those forcibly removed from the beach, which briefly became a site of protest, culminating in a beach cleansing ceremony involving the slaughter of a sheep.
The heavy-handed security was at least partly the result of several incidents on Clifton’s beaches in late 2019 which culminated in the murder of a young University of Cape Town student. On one occasion a knifeman ran amok, and several people were stabbed in the course of one evening.
Efforts to establish the CID began after that, a three-year process that relied largely on community donations, time and finances. The CID was approved in May 2023 and is one of about 50 set up under a city-led move to prevent urban decay caused by insufficient or inefficient government service delivery.
Pienaar is one of seven directors elected in January to guide the Clifton CID. Others include Old Mutual heavyweight Paul Boynton, former Dimension Data Middle East and Africa CE Allan Cawood and Federated Meats director Anthony Schneiderman.
“It really is a positive story,” Schneiderman told the Sunday Times this week. “I’m giving up most of my afternoons for this — I’m fortunate that I’m able to do so.”
He said the board features some of the country’s top business brains. “How lucky we are to have them on board. My job will be to try to manage these strong characters.”
He will also have to manage some of the country’s most litigious characters, as evidenced by a feisty meeting last month in the Clifton Scouts Hall dominated by disagreement over the election of board directors.
Schneiderman was himself embroiled in a legal row several years ago over lewd and inappropriate scenes on the property neighbouring his, which hosted parties and film shoots sometimes involving live cheetahs and sexual encounters on the balcony.
Some residents say the Clifton CID was a litmus test of residents’ true concerns; some in the community favour more heavy-handed security, while others view the CID as an opportunity to effect meaningful change — an approach favoured by Albie Sachs who drew applause when he addressed January’s CID meeting about Clifton’s “collective spirit”.
He said the Clifton beaches “used to be cut off from the majority — and they are now open”.
“It gives me absolute joy to see people enjoying it,” he added.
Neither Sachs nor Pienaar could be reached for comment this week.
The CID owes its existence to extensive volunteer work, according to the latest CID newsletter, which states: “About 1,500 days ago, at the behest of several Clifton neighbours who were deeply concerned about destructive fires, deadly crime and growing grime in Clifton and Glen Beach, a small, intrepid group of long-term Clifton property owners rolled up their sleeves to work pro-bono towards the establishment of effective public space management and urban regeneration.”
CID manager Amanda Kirk said the notable reduction in antisocial behaviour on Clifton beaches over the summer illustrates the success of the current approach.
“This year there were no incidents of public violence — with easily 4,500 people on the beaches [over New Year]. There were not even drunks and crowds enjoyed themselves without incident,” Kirk said.
The CID programme helps keep public spaces free of informal housing, particularly in Maiden’s Cove where previously people had been reintegrated into city shelters and assisted with basic needs.
“We’ve managed to keep Maiden’s Cove clear of shacks since October,” said Theresa Massaglia, whose NPO, Ignisive, is contracted to manage the CID’s social upliftment programme. She said the additional resources provided via the CID model allows a more hands-on approach to resolve pressing social issues — to the benefit of rich and poor.
“It makes such a difference when you have a team that is fully focused on it properly every day,” Massaglia said.
The CID model involves raising a special rate, collected by the city, to be spent on neighbourhood improvements. The rate amounts to about R440 for every R5m of municipal property value. The model initially arose to protect commercial and industrial areas from crime, but has since spread to residential areas.
Critics of the model claim it benefits the rich more than the poor because many cannot afford to pay extra rates. The counter-argument is that the CID rate enables the city to direct more funding to areas where it is most needed.
Gene Lohrentz, whose company Geocentric Urban Management manages 13 Cape Town CIDs, said the model focuses on the maintenance of public spaces rather than private property. As such, it represents private investment in the wellbeing of the broader city landscape.
“I don’t think it is an unjust system to allow people who have the means to provide those additional services out of their own pocket while knowing that the money that they do pay [in rates] will go to where it is needed most,” he said.