STRAND MUNICIPALITY ANNOUNCES HISTORIC WIND WALL: GORDONS BAY ALREADY FEELING SMUG ABOUT IT
THE HELDERBURGER — OFFICIAL VOICE OF THE HELDERBERG BASIN AND SURROUNDING AREAS OF CONCERN
The Strand municipal council voted unanimously last Tuesday to proceed with what Councillor Dries van der Merwe described as “the single most ambitious infrastructure project in the history of the Western Cape and possibly the world” — the construction of a permanent protective wall along the Strand beachfront designed to stop the southeaster wind.
The southeaster had no comment as it had already been blowing for eleven days and showed no sign of caring.
BACKGROUND TO THE CRISIS
For those unfamiliar with conditions along this stretch of coastline between roughly September and February residents of Strand and Gordon’s Bay endure what meteorologists call a strong southeaster and what locals call something considerably less printable. The wind routinely reaches speeds of 100 kilometres per hour and persists for stretches of ten to fifteen days at a time before pausing briefly to allow residents a single afternoon of false hope before resuming with what many describe as personal malice.
During peak season it is not uncommon to find garden furniture in the next street and small dogs in the next suburb. Trampolines have been recorded in Gordon’s Bay that were last seen in Strand. One resident’s shade sail has been missing since October and is believed to be somewhere over the Hottentots Holland mountains living a quieter and more dignified life than the rest of us.
Braai fires are a theoretical concept from September onwards. Nobody has successfully lit one since the second week of August. The coals exist. The flames do not.
THE PROPOSAL
Councillor van der Merwe unveiled preliminary plans at the council meeting which were drawn on what appeared to be the back of a Spur menu. The wall he explained would run the full length of the Strand beachfront stand approximately twelve metres high be constructed of reinforced concrete with “maybe some nice tiles on it for tourism purposes” and would redirect the southeaster up and over the town where it would become somebody else’s problem.
When asked whose problem specifically Councillor van der Merwe gestured vaguely in the direction of Somerset West and said “inland people.”
The project is estimated to cost an amount the council’s financial officer described as “a lot” and which will be covered by a combination of ratepayer levies a special wind tax yet to be fully defined and what the councillor called “grants and that sort of thing.” A timeline for completion was given as “before next summer” which the financial officer immediately amended to “before a summer to be confirmed at a later stage.”
Gordon’s Bay was not consulted. Gordon’s Bay is aware of this and is already preparing a strongly worded letter.
PUBLIC REACTION
Response from Strand residents has been broadly enthusiastic tempered only by the awareness that the municipality once took four years to repaint the parking lines on Main Road.
Retired schoolteacher Miems Botha of Wilhelmina Street said she supported the wall completely and had already stopped buying replacement garden umbrellas in anticipation. She has gone through nine since 2019. The wind ate all of them.
Local surf shop owner Brendan “Bakkies” Kleinhans expressed cautious opposition on the grounds that the southeaster produces ideal surfing conditions and that blocking it would be bad for business and also “completely mad.” He added that the wind “builds character” which is something people say when they have given up trying to close a gate.
Oom Frikkie Esterhuizen who has lived on the beachfront for thirty-one years and once held a braai in full gale conditions out of pure stubbornness said the wall was unnecessary as residents had always simply adapted to the wind. When asked how he had adapted he said he uses bricks to hold his napkins down and has not owned a hat since 2003.
Primary school learners at Laerskool Strandmeer were asked for their thoughts as part of a class project. Several drew pictures of the wall. One child drew the wind blowing the wall over. That child’s drawing has been pinned to the staff room noticeboard.
THE GORDON’S BAY SITUATION
Gordon’s Bay has taken the announcement poorly.
Situated around the bay and receiving the same southeaster with equal enthusiasm Gordon’s Bay residents have pointed out that a wall protecting only Strand would simply funnel the wind with increased velocity around the headland and directly into Gordon’s Bay at what local resident and amateur weather enthusiast Corné Pietersen estimates would be “roughly the speed of a freight train and twice as mean.”
Pietersen has submitted a twelve-page objection to the municipality including a hand-drawn wind diagram that the council acknowledges receiving and describes as “noted.”
The Gordon’s Bay Ratepayers Association has called an emergency meeting and passed a motion demanding either an extension of the wall around the full bay or what their chairperson called “meaningful compensation” which when pressed she defined as a new park and a coffee shop.
Councillor van der Merwe responded that the municipality would “look into it” which everyone in the Helderberg region understands to mean it will not be looked into.
EXPERT OPINION
Professor Hendrik Lourens of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Stellenbosch University was reached by telephone on Wednesday afternoon during a brief lull between gusts.
He said the proposal was thermodynamically problematic meteorologically ambitious structurally challenging and fundamentally at odds with how wind works. He used the phrase “you cannot wall weather” three times during the call with increasing emphasis.
He was asked whether there was any scenario in which a twelve-metre concrete wall could stop a sustained southeaster.
He laughed for some time.
He then said no.
The municipality has thanked the professor for his input and confirmed the project will proceed.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Tenders are expected to open in the coming months and the council has already received one unsolicited proposal from a company based in Gauteng whose previous projects include a school hall in Limpopo and what their brochure describes as “various walls of a general nature.”
An environmental impact assessment is required and is expected to generate objections from kite surfers the South African Weather Service and at minimum one pelican.
Meanwhile the southeaster having paused briefly on Thursday to allow residents to move their furniture back into position resumed Friday morning with what a local WhatsApp group described as “renewed purpose and a terrible joy” and is forecast to continue for another eight to twelve days before the next brief window of stillness during which Strand residents will stand outside squinting at the sky and daring to hope before it all starts again.
The wall does not yet exist. The wind very much does.
Councillor van der Merwe could not be reached for comment on Friday as his phone is not working. The cover blew off his satellite dish on Thursday evening and landed in Gordon’s Bay which at this point everyone agrees is on brand.
The Helderburger is published in the Helderberg Basin and accepts no responsibility for weather related property damage or municipal promises. Letters to the editor may be submitted but cannot be guaranteed to arrive if sent during southeaster season.
You said: Now supply peoples reactions to the article those for it and against -all the normal complaints etc include the greenies/environmentalists etc.
Now supply peoples reactions to the article those for it and against -all the normal complaints etc include the greenies/environmentalists etc. Note this could boost the tourism industry if Strand has a windless beach during our hot summer season. You need to depict this as a follow-up article.
17:32
Claude responded: WALL OF CONTROVERSY: HELDERBERG RESIDENTS HAVE FEELINGS AND ARE NOT KEEPING THEM TO THEMSELVES
WALL OF CONTROVERSY: HELDERBERG RESIDENTS HAVE FEELINGS AND ARE NOT KEEPING THEM TO THEMSELVES
THE HELDERBURGER — FOLLOW-UP SPECIAL EDITION In Which We Report the Fallout and Accept No Responsibility For Any Of It
Since last week’s explosive front page report on the proposed Strand Wind Wall the Helderburger has received more correspondence than at any point in its publishing history including the time we misspelled the name of the Dutch Reformed Church in a heading and the time we accidentally printed the wrong winner of the Helderberg Garden Competition for three consecutive years.
Responses arrived by email WhatsApp voice note handwritten letter and in one case a man who simply appeared at our office door on Wednesday morning with a folder and strong opinions. He stayed for two hours. We offered him coffee. He did not want coffee. He wanted to talk about wind.
What follows is a representative sample of the public reaction to the proposed wall. We have edited some letters for length and most letters for language.
THOSE IN FAVOUR
Submitted via email — Charmaine Hendricks — Strand
I have lived in Strand for forty-four years and I want to go on record as saying that this wall is the best idea this municipality has ever had and I include in that comparison absolutely nothing because this municipality has not previously had a good idea. Last October the wind took my washing off the line and I found my good tablecloth wrapped around a stop sign in the next road with a look of defeat that I personally identified with. Build the wall. Build it tall. Build it yesterday.
Submitted via WhatsApp voice note — transcribed by our intern Pieter who is doing his best
“Hello yes this is Oom Sakkie from near the beach yes the beach yes. I am calling because of the wall. I am for it. Every year since I can remember the wind comes and every year I say to my wife Elsa I say Elsa this cannot be normal. She says it is normal. It is not normal. A hundred kilometres an hour is not a breeze that is a punishment. We had a trampoline. We no longer have a trampoline. We have not had a trampoline since 2021. Build the wall. Tell the councillor I said so. Tell him Sakkie said so. He knows me. We went to the same school. Build the wall.“
Letter — handwritten on Clicks receipt — name withheld by request
The wind is destroying my will to live and also my patio furniture. I bought a new set in February thinking I was being clever buying off season. The southeaster started in September and by October I had one chair and a feeling of profound loss. The other three chairs are presumably somewhere living better lives. Yes to the wall. Unconditionally yes. No further questions.
Email — Beverley and Kobus Lategaan — Strand Beachfront
We run a guesthouse on the beachfront and we want to say publicly that the wall cannot come soon enough. Every summer we watch guests arrive from Johannesburg full of excitement about the beach only to spend their entire holiday horizontal in the corridor holding onto the skirting boards. They leave bad reviews. They say things like “lovely location but very windy.” Very windy. As though we had not noticed. As though we had simply forgotten to mention that between September and February the entire town becomes a wind tunnel with parking. If the wall brings tourists who stay upright and leave five star reviews we will personally donate to the building fund.
Via the Helderburger Facebook page
Finally a municipality doing something. I don’t care if it doesn’t work. I don’t care if the professor from Stellenbosch says it’s impossible. I don’t care about thermodynamics. I care about being able to eat a chip without it leaving my hand before it reaches my mouth. Build the wall. Put tiles on it. I’ll bring a casserole to the opening.
THOSE AGAINST
Formal letter — Brendan “Bakkies” Kleinhans — Ocean Riders Surf and Kite Shop — Strand
I wish to register my opposition to the proposed wind wall in the strongest possible terms and I want the Helderburger to print this in full without editing the part where I say this is the most catastrophically shortsighted idea since someone decided Strand needed more parking instead of a proper promenade.
The southeaster is not the problem. The southeaster is the product. Do you know what happens when the southeaster blows consistently for ten to fifteen days across a bay with this specific fetch and orientation? You get world-class kitesurfing conditions. You get windsurfing. You get the kind of sailing that people travel from Europe to experience. You get an outdoor adventure economy that nobody in this municipality has ever bothered to properly develop because they were too busy trying to stop the wind instead of selling tickets to it.
Block the wind and you have a warm flat bay indistinguishable from approximately eight hundred other warm flat bays along the South African coastline. Congratulations. You have turned a unique natural asset into a paddling pool.
I have nothing further to add except that I will be at every public participation meeting and I am bringing a lawyer.
Email — Dirk Immelman — Amateur Meteorologist and Subscriber Since the Garden Competition Incident
With respect the wall will not stop the wind. The wall will redirect the wind. There is a meaningful difference and that difference will be experienced personally by every resident of Gordon’s Bay who will find themselves living inside what I can only describe as an aerodynamic catastrophe. I have run the numbers. I have drawn diagrams. I have sent the diagrams to the municipality. The municipality has acknowledged receipt using an automated reply that I do not believe any human person has read.
The wind will go over the wall. The wind will go around the wall. The wind will find gaps in the wall because wind does not respect town planning decisions. I say this not as a critic but as a man who has been monitoring wind speeds from his back stoep since 2009 with equipment his wife describes as excessive and which he describes as adequate. Do not build the wall. Accept the wind. Buy better anchors for your furniture.
Via email — Ruan Fick — Gordon’s Bay
So let me understand. Strand gets a wall. Gordon’s Bay gets the leftover wind plus presumably the additional velocity caused by the Bernoulli effect around the headland which my brother-in-law who studied engineering for two years before switching to hospitality tells me could increase local wind speeds by up to thirty percent. Thirty percent. We are currently at a hundred kilometres per hour. Thirty percent more than that is not a weather event that is a geological process. I am not a ratepayer who writes letters. I am becoming a ratepayer who writes letters. Watch this space.
THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS RESPOND
Formal submission — Helderberg Green Coalition — submitted in triplicate and also via fax which surprised everyone in the office
The Helderberg Green Coalition wishes to place on record its comprehensive and multidimensional opposition to the proposed Strand Wind Wall on the following grounds which we have organised into thematic clusters for ease of reference.
The coastal ecosystem of this stretch of the Western Cape is not merely a backdrop to human recreational activity. It is a functioning bioregion of significant ecological sensitivity. The proposed wall would interrupt natural aeolian sediment transport processes that maintain beach morphology and dune formation. In simpler terms it will destroy the beach it is supposedly protecting by stopping the very wind-driven sand movement that keeps the beach a beach and not a parking lot with ambitions.
Furthermore the construction footprint alone will require significant excavation in a zone that falls within the coastal management zone as defined under the National Environmental Management Integrated Coastal Management Act. We note that no environmental authorisation appears to have been obtained or applied for. We note this calmly but we note it loudly.
We also wish to address the marine mammals. The West Coast is home to seasonal whale activity. The acoustic and vibrational impact of large-scale concrete construction on cetacean communication and navigation patterns is a documented concern. We ask the municipality to explain how it plans to build a twelve-metre concrete wall along an active cetacean coastline without a marine mammal impact assessment and we await this explanation with great patience and absolutely no expectation that it is coming.
The Helderberg Green Coalition does not oppose development. The Helderberg Green Coalition opposes this development. There is a petition. It currently has 847 signatures and we are not finished.
Email — Tannie Sannie Rousseau who describes herself as “not a greenie but“*
I am not an environmentalist but I have watched the birds on that beach for twenty-three years and those birds need the wind. The terns need it. The gulls need it. The oystercatchers need it. I don’t know exactly why they need it but they always face into it and they look like they know what they are doing which is more than I can say for the municipal council. Leave the birds and their wind alone. I have said my piece.
THE TOURISM ANGLE DIVIDES OPINION
Email — Petro Swanepoel — Accommodation Owner and Member of the Helderberg Tourism Forum
I want to respond to those opposing the wall on tourism grounds with what I believe is a very simple question. Which tourist comes to Strand in December for the wind? I am waiting. I have been waiting for twenty-two years of running a guesthouse. They do not come for the wind. They come despite the wind. They come and they are immediately blown sideways and they spend three days asking me why nobody warned them and I spend three days explaining that the wind is technically mentioned on the tourism website in a section called “local character” which nobody reads.
A windless Strand beach in December and January is not just a beach. It is a destination. Cape Town gets False Bay in summer and the wind drives everyone off the beaches and where do they go? They go home or they sit inside. Imagine instead a sheltered bay forty minutes from the city where families can actually use an umbrella without it becoming a projectile. Imagine restaurants with outdoor seating that functions as outdoor seating rather than as a mechanism for distributing menus across the car park. Imagine tourism revenue. Imagine being able to eat outside.
Build the wall. Put a craft market next to it. Put my guesthouse in the article.
Email — Joost van Niekerk — Self Described Purist and Contrarian
The whole tourism argument assumes that what visitors want is a warm sanitised wind-free beach experience identical to every resort town from Hermanus to Hartenbos. It further assumes that Strand has no identity worth preserving and should immediately replace whatever personality it has with a more commercially convenient one.
The wind is Strand. The wind is Gordon’s Bay. It is the defining characteristic of this coastline in summer. Visitors who know this come prepared and they love it. There is an entire community of wind sport enthusiasts kitesurfers windsurfers paddlers who choose this coast specifically because of what it offers. Remove the selling point and you do not get more tourists. You get the same number of tourists who are slightly less blown about but who are also spending their holiday money at Ballito instead because Ballito has a wave pool now and you have a wall.
I want it noted that I am not against tourism. I am against the homogenisation of a coastline with a genuine and distinctive character in exchange for the ability to eat a chip in peace. Though I understand the chip argument. I do. The chips are a real problem.
CORRESPONDENCE WE ARE INCLUDING WITHOUT FURTHER COMMENT
Via Facebook messenger — anonymous
What about the smell from the harbour when there is no wind? Has anyone thought about the smell? I have thought about the smell. Build the wall or don’t build the wall but somebody think about the smell.
Handwritten note — slipped under the Helderburger office door — no name
The wind is God’s air conditioning. You cannot wall God’s air conditioning. This is my position.
Email — Gary — no surname provided
I just want to know who is going to clean the wall. This municipality cannot keep the public toilets at the beach clean and those are small. The wall will be enormous. Who is cleaning that. Who specifically. I want a name.
Text message forwarded via WhatsApp — origin unclear
My cousin in Gauteng says if Strand gets a windless beach he will finally come visit. He has been saying he will come visit for eleven years. Build the wall. I want to see my cousin.
THE HELDERBURGER EDITORIAL POSITION
This publication does not take political positions on matters of active municipal debate. We do note however that in the course of compiling this report we contacted Councillor van der Merwe on four separate occasions and received no response on three of them. On the fourth occasion a person answered who said the councillor was unavailable and then put the phone down before we could leave a message.
The southeaster is currently in its sixth consecutive day of operation. The Helderburger’s front door sign blew away on Tuesday. We are not saying this is relevant. We are saying it is true.
The wall does not yet exist. The opinions very much do.
The Helderburger welcomes further correspondence on this and all matters of community concern and reminds readers that letters may be shortened for space and that the editor’s decision is final even when the editor is hiding behind his desk because the parking lot gate blew open again and hit the company bakkie.
The Helderburger — Serving the Helderberg Basin since before everything became this complicated.
Be the first to comment