Support ebbs and flows for Agulhas tidal pool repair
● They used to trap fish and provide food for the hungry. Now Africa’s southernmost tidal pools produce nothing and cost a fortune.
A R1-million municipal project to renovate two “leaky” tidal pools near the famous Cape Agulhas lighthouse — a few metres from the southern tip of Africa — has prompted outrage in the windswept region.
The pools used to be Khoisan fish traps but were dynamited in the 1970s and replaced with concrete structures that no longer retain much seawater. Authorised by the Cape Agulhas municipality, the repair job prompted objections from those who say the remote area has far more serious spending priorities — such as housing and health infrastructure.
Critics also question the wisdom of spending more money on something that desecrated a heritage site. This week a prominent Khoisan leader likened the pools to “cultural annihilation”.
The uproar coincides with concern about crumbling tourist infrastructure in the area, which is potentially a global tourism hotspot as the meeting place of the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The local independent tourist office was taken over by the municipality last month due to financial problems.
Outrage over the pools also prompted discord within the Suidpunt Environmental Alliance, a watchdog group that for years tried to stop the municipality dumping chemicals into the tidal pools and polluting the surrounding sea.
“This tidal pool is an abomination,” said former SEA chairman Pierre Massyn, who resigned last month in protest against the repair job. “It is another example of man’s greed and selfishness, and demonstrates shocking insensitivity to the environment and our natural and cultural heritage.
“Man-made pools do not belong in the sea. They could have spent this money on a proper swimming pool where the people want it.”
The repair budget was opposed by the ANC, which is in opposition on the council, according to chief whip Eve Marthinus. “It’s a luxury. The tidal pool in my opinion is not a necessity — it was one of the issues we were not happy about,” Marthinus said.
“We rejected the budget of the municipality last year and this year. We don’t think their spending priorities are right.”
Better things to spend money on
Some residents told the Sunday Times the pool budget would have been better spent on reviving the town’s tourism brand. Financial problems forced the closure of its tourism office at the Cape Agulhas lighthouse.
However, others welcomed the maintenance spend and said the pools were popular with all sectors of the community, including farmers who brought their staff for picnics, church and school groups and those learning to swim. The Struisbaai National Sea Rescue Institute also uses the pools to practise lifesaving techniques.
“We’ve been asking them to fix these pools for years. They are a valuable asset and there is nowhere else to swim safely in Agulhas with its rocky coastline,” said one permanent resident and regular pool visitor.
“The pools are here anyway, why let them deteriorate? They are used every day.”
Local homeowner and architect Paul Botha said the council budget had been approved following a thorough public participation process. It was the council’s responsibility to maintain public assets, Botha said.
“It is something that is needed — there are no pool facilities in the area.”
Rather than criticise the council’s maintenance programme, objectors should assist with social upliftment. “It is too easy to criticise from the sidelines,” Botha said.
Khoisan National Congress spokeswoman, Cochoqua clan chief Tania Kleinhans-Cedras, said the pools were a reminder of the state’s continuing disrespect towards the Khoisan.
“When you obliterate all of these sacred sites, what you are really doing is saying these people never existed — it is a form of annihilation,” she said.
“They built those [traditional] sites as a means to sustain themselves — that is why they existed. Now they don’t benefit at all from what is happening.
“But really it is all about people’s identification with those places, which is now lost.”