White elephants in the Kouga
Submitted by JBay Tourism on Tue, 30/12/2008 - 14:25.
As Jeffreys Bay Tourism we wish to comment on White Elephants of the Kouga, referring to the Kouga Cultural Centre in particular.
The Kouga Cultural Centre is there for the community, which means that community organizations, NGO's or private individuals may make use of the centre for various events and any functions. A minimul fee is charged to ensure that this venue is accessible for all stakeholders.
The Kouga Municpality is aware that the Centre is not being used to it's potential and that municipal staff cannot fulfil this function. It has thus been resolved to investigate the possibility of a Public Private Partnership whereby the private sector runs the Centre.
This is a legal procedure, consisting of a Feasibility Study Stage 1a and 1b (taking in consideration the finances and business plans for the future) and then Stage 2, consisting of looking for the correct partners to manage the Centre to its full potential.Public Private Partnership establishment in South Africa is controlled by National Treasury, and although long winded, could assure maximum productivity of the Centre in future.
The draft Stage 1A has been completed in December 2008, and needs to be presented to Council in early 2009.
So, now that everyone is up to speed with what is happening with the Kouga Cultural Centre, please do not hesitate to book it out as a venue.
- Schools can use it for their stage productions.
- Companies can use it for presentations, functions, promotions, etc.
Once you have been inside to see what there is to offer and you use your imagination a little, you can create an amazing event.
It is time for you as the public to become part of the solution in being pro active instead of being part of the problem by jumping to conclusions and complaining the whole time.
Marj
GIVE US - THE PUBLIC - A BREAK!
Submitted by kougablazer on Sun, 04/01/2009 - 09:41.
Thank you, Ms Heyman “as Jeffreys Bay Tourism”, for such a fine illustration of how the Kouga’s many white elephants are created through “procedure”. It will no doubt inspire those dozens of members of so-called “stakeholder committees” who had – over many months - severally and jointly and at their own costs proposed a plethora of imaginative “operationalising” ideas and implementation plans for that tragic “centre” to know that the many more hundreds of thousand Rand since spent on “Feasibility Study Stage 1a” alone to know that the Kouga Municipality is actually “aware” of its shortcomings.
But, now that we (the ostensibly unimaginatively complaining public) are “up to speed” of the “long winded” (sic) procedural impediments to participative democracy in this regard, we look forward to a full disclosure of that costly “Feasibility Study”. It should make for a significant addition to the content of that other white elephant of the Kouga, the official website at www.kougamunicipality.gov.za. Let us hope that its proposals will also integrate this “centre” into a very much larger rescue plan for those other blanched pachyderms, such as the dozens of underutilised “public facilities” that include all so-called “community” halls and sport grounds, abandoned old clinics, the Loerie environmental centre, Soetvlei and Hankey’s Yellowwood Park, the Sara Bartmann tomb, Philips Tunnel, our historic narrow-gauge rail and its neglected stations and, especially, the impoverished and still deprived communities these are meant to serve. And that’s just a fraction of the elephantine herd.
You see, Ms Heyman, we (the public) have been and are inside so much more than the KCC. Need we remind you of the simple fact that it was the “private” initiative of a few inspired and imaginative individuals that resulted in what has since been left to rot? Your pitiful list of only 2 uses for this undervalued and overpriced building doesn’t even begin to rate among the priorities on our stakeholder agenda. But, you had better hurry if you (as “tourism”) are to be “part of the solution” and salvage any of it from the elements after so many years of “procedural” neglect and abuse.
We, the volunteering “stakeholder” public that includes many thousands from Cambria to Sunnyside to Umzamowethu and beyond are ready to be overwhelmed by “your” innovative solutions with the full backing of the Kouga Council and municipal staff whom you defend so offensively.
Help give us a break through the bureaucratic and petty political logjams, Ms Heyman, and we’ll show you much more of the Kouga and the potentials of its indigenous communities than you could ever have imagined!
