At the recent council meeting of Drakenstein Municipality the local council made it’s plans clear for a new public amenities bylaw. The draft bylaw will now be advertised for public participation.
“Public amenity” means any land, commonage, square, camping site, swimming bath, river, public resort, recreation site, nature reserve, zoological, botanical or other garden, park or hiking trail which is the property of or under the direct control of the Municipality, including any portion thereof and any facility or apparatus therein or thereon.
The public has 30 days to comment from the day of the publication of the draft bylaw. The date of the publication of the draft bylaw will be communicated to residents soon.
The purpose of the Public Amenities Bylaw is to promote the achievement of a safe and peaceful environment and to provide for procedures, methods and practices to regulate the use and management of public amenities.
As part of the routine review, changes are recommended to the draft Public Amenities Bylaw to address issues specifically pertaining to rivers in the Drakenstein Municipal area.
The draft bylaw is subject to any other national and provincial legislation. This bylaw shall be known as the bylaw relating to public amenities and shall come into operation on the date of publication thereof in the Provincial Gazette.
Under the heading Nuisances, the following, inter alia, is prohibited:
The ignition of open fires, unless permitted in designated areas as per clause lO(c), for the purposes of food preparation, smoking of hookah pipes and bond fires;
The jumping off bridges into rivers;
Tying of ropes to a bridge, tree or any other structure and using it to swing into a river; and consumption of liquor or any illegal substance in or on banks of any river. No person shall, subject to subsection 10(2), in or at a public amenity perform any action, swim, walk, or play contrary to the provision of a notice, in a fish-pond, fountain, stream or pond. As far as vehicles are concerned, the bylaw states that no person shall exceed the speed limit that is determined by the Municipality.
Sport and recreation are also addressed, with the bylaw stating that sport and recreation activities will be allowed in any river at own risk; these activities are not only limited to swimming, canoeing, dipping, and fishing. Recreation activities in and on any river will only be allowed up until 20:00.
Penalties will be instituted, with any person who contravenes or fails to comply with a provision of this bylaw, a notice issued in terms of this bylaw or a condition imposed under this bylaw, irrespective of whether such contravention or failure has been declared as an offence elsewhere in this bylaw, shall be guilty of an offence and liable upon conviction to –
a) a fine or imprisonment, or either such fine or such imprisonment or both such fine and such imprisonment;
b) in the case of a continuing offence, an additional fine or an additional period of imprisonment or either such additional fine or such additional imprisonment or both such additional fine and imprisonment for each day on which such offence is continued; and
c) a further amount equal to any costs and expenses found by the court to have been incurred by the municipality as result of such contravention.
