Zandvlei Trust

The Sand River Catchment Forum (SRCF) and the
Zandvlei Action Committee (ZAC) - meeting minutes.

This is a City of Cape Town and a civil society initiative.

For any comment, suggestion or enquiry on this webpage content contact Gavin Lawson.

Zandvlei, Westlake Wetlands.

The Background

The initiative of the CSRM Branch (Catchment, Stormwater and River Management) of the TR&S Directorate (Transport Roads and Stormwater) of the City of Cape Town.
Zandvlei Trust members lobbied the City to start a forum to discuss the issues of the catchment, and interact by exchanging all relevant information.
This Forum started in 1998 and provides the opportunity for civil society, local and provincial government to discuss and formulate management options for the catchment;

• so as to enhance water quality,

• minimize flood risks and 

• increase general amenity value of the drainage system and its immediate environs.

• The draft minutes of the meetings, are below and are not signed or approved.

• These are for general information, so that the workings and discussions of this group may be understood.

• Their concern and focus is the management of the catchment of Zandvlei.

• The Zandvlei Action Committee (ZAC) minutes are annexed to the Sand River Catchment Forum minutes. This group of City officials and civil society user groups of  Zandvlei, meet to discuss and "put into action" measures to help with the overall management of this estuary, river systems, wetlands and waterbody.

• Martin Thompson is the Chairman of the Forum.

Participants

To date the following organisations and businesses participate;

• City of Cape Town - Catchment, Stormwater and Roads,

• City of Cape Town - Environmental Resource Management,

• City of Cape Town - Planning,

• City of Cape Town - Health,

• City of Cape Town - Parks,

• City of Cape Town - Utility Services,

• Table Mountain National Park,

• Friends of Constantia Valley Greenbelts,

• Friends of Tokai Planations,

• Friends of Die Oog,

• Friends of the Kistenhof Wetlands,

• Friends of Park Island,

• Friends of the Keysers River,

• WESSA,

• Working for Wetlands, Western Cape,

• SANBI – Urban Conservation,

• Constantia Property Owners Asssociation,

• Constantia Hills Residents Association,

• Zandvlei Trust,

• Wetland Solutions,

• Constantia Wine Route - Buitenwerwachting Wine Estate.

More info about;

Zandvlei Catchment Rivers.

Zandvlei catchment poster by Carol Howes

No.	Title.	Link.	Document.
1.	Water Level Management of Zandvlei, a Z- fold pamphlet written by Martin Thompson.	Read the content.
2.	Rivers and Wetlands in our Backyards a Z- fold pamphlet produced by the Environmental Resource Management and Catchment, Stormwater and River Management.	Read the content.
3.	A lobby  / petion letter to Parliament in September 1913, by Henry Cloete, the owner of the Alphen Estate, about the afforestation on the Table Mountain and the Peninsula.	Read the document.	It is our pleasure that you publish the letter on your website. It is reproduced with permission of the Trustees of the Alphen Archive. Henry Cloete, CMG of Alphen was my great great grand father and the owner of Alphen at the time the letter was written in 1913 (not 1813). Apart from being a farmer of distinction, he was a advocate and had been a member of the Cape Legislative Assembly. During his time at the Pretoria Bar he had the distinction being appointed British Agent to the Kruger Republic and represented the British Governments interests for a period after the withdrawal of their diplomatic representatives. For this Queen Victoria awarded him the CMG. Alex Cloete - Hopkins    (Nov 2009)
4.	The Early Detection and Rapid Response Programme has a number of teams operating across the Metropole creating employment, skills training previously unemployed people, documenting problem areas, removing invasive species in a planned co ordinated and methodical way.	See the "most wanted" species on the Peninsula.
5.	An article from the City of Cape Town magazine Enviroworks.	Invasive species; a threat to our heritage.	-
6.	Old Dutch East India survey maps from the 1700's of the Constantia valley with the catchment rivers into Zandvlei. new 21/04/2013.	the maps.

Minutes 2013.

Minutes 2012.

Minutes 2011.

Minutes 2010.

Minutes 2009. 

Minutes 2008.

Minutes 2007.

Minutes 2006.

Minutes 2005.

Further background information

July 2007 - The agenda for the first re-instated meeting on 24 July 2007 has been sent to the role players.

March 2007 -  An outcome of the last Mayoral meeting is that the Forum will start again. Martin Thompson will Chair the meetings.
Zandvlei Trust proposes these meetings should be held quarterly with all the representatives of the civil society and the relevant City officals in the catchment of Zandvlei.

February 2007 - The Mayor asked Barry Wood to start the Sand River Catchment Forum Meetings again.

January 2007 - Zandvlei Trust is lobbying to have these importnat meetings re-instated. Meetings with the Mayor of Cape Town took place.

September 2005 - Chairman of the SRCMF left the City, and no further Sand River Catchment Forum meetings have taken place.

The founding Chairman, was Bryan Nicolson from Catchment, Stormwater and River Management of the City of Cape Town in 1998.
Vincent Marincowitz, a Zandvlei Trust Exco member, lobbied for the formulation of this Forum, along with others.