The view from a Hermanus walkway was particularly breathtaking for a “band of brigands” who emerged victorious from an eight-year battle to create a public thoroughfare amid stiff opposition from billionaires who didn't want to share their exclusive sea views.
Until last month, the existing 13km concrete path — one of the Overberg tourist town's most popular attractions — made an abrupt 1km detour along the busy main road away from a cluster of upmarket homes and apartments nestled around scenic Poole’s Bay.
In 2018, the Cliff Path Action Group (CPAG) proposed extending the concrete path right along the coast, to the dismay of Poole’s Bay Residents’ Association, made up of several high-profile Hermanus families.
These included disgraced former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, who ended his life not far from the controversial path, and Basil Hersov, former head of the Anglovaal mining group and father of businessman Rob Hersov, who is a vocal critic of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In submissions, one of objectors challenging the environmental impact process in court referred to the nonprofit group as a “band of brigands”.
Bayview, a private development which also objected, erected a balustrade preventing the public from crossing their non-tidal pool area until a high court order forced the upmarket estate to take it down. A subsequent land survey found the entire Bayview pool was actually on state land.
The court order meant path construction could proceed in front of Bayview to complete the walkway along the coast, bringing to an end an annoying detour for walkers along the town's busy main road.
Now the once-out-of-bounds area, originally constructed in concrete by local community members in the 1960s, forms a continuous seafront walkway extending from New Harbour to Grotto Beach.
Jobre Stassen, the action group's chair, said: “For all of us the result is beyond our wildest dreams. We are grateful for public endorsement often describing the new section as a legacy project to be enjoyed by generations to come.”
The privately funded project cost R15m, including construction, environmental impact assessment, multiple design proposals and five years of future maintenance.
CPAG covered the cost with angel investment funding and is now recouping this through a public fundraising campaign.
New Overstrand mayor Archie Klaas told the Sunday Times: “The Hermanus Cliff Path is an important part of this tourism-driven town. Just imagine whale-watching without Hermanus Cliff Path. The upgrade of the path around Eastcliff is a welcome new addition to this amazing experience.
“Now that the path has been completed, we need to focus on the positives and avoid wasting time on what divides us. I love the positive energy coming from the community. More such positive steps will help us grow tourism and create much-needed jobs.”
CPAG committee member and local businessman Jacques le Roux described the completed path as a “big win for locals and for tourism”. He said some of the surrounding homeowners who were initially resistant have come around to having a world-class coastal path on their doorstep.
Stassen, backed by CPAG founding members advocate Johan de Waal, attorney Marius van Staden, Le Roux and Debbie Wynne, successfully approached the government in 2018 for permission to build the link below the high-water mark.
With formal environmental approval granted, building the path’s coastal connection began in February 2024. The construction window lasted only five months last year and again this year to accommodate the winter whale season.
Stassen said: “A more than 40-year dispute ended up in court last year to determine the cadastral boundary, the very boundary that separates public from private land. In an era of pin-drop, Google Earth and GIS maps, it accelerates the need for seaside cadastral boundaries defined by GPS co-ordinates, essential to democratise our coastline. Many of the SG diagrams guarding public coastal land date from a colonial era and these can easily be rectified by proper guidelines and regulation to actively guard the coastline against private greed and encroachment.”
The Poole’s Bay area is particularly popular with big-wave surfers who have for decades ignored the no-entry signs to clamber down the cliffs and along the boulders to surf the legendary Bayview break, named after the luxury seafront accommodation.
The new link has improved access for these surfers as well as for walkers and wildlife — from Cape clawless otters to the near-threatened black oyster catchers.
“The lessons learnt at Poole’s Bay should help to open up other areas along our coast,” said Stassen.
“CPAG would love to share ideas of democratising the coastline for all to enjoy. There is a need for more tolerance from homeowners who are fortunate to abut the coast and who need to respect the right of the public to enjoy longshore coastal access.
“The environmental coastal law should be used to protect the public against undue harassment of property owners. Strandloper trails became fisherman’s trails that now are turned into eco-tourism trails — this ancient right of vetustas (time immemorial) dating from Roman times is worth fighting for in an overpopulated world.”
Mary Jean Thomas-Johnson, the granddaughter of a former Poole’s Bay property owner, said: “Some properties have been owned by the same families for generations. These families together prevented the extension of the cliff path. With a greater recognition of the need for wider access to recreation opportunities, sustainable use of coastal areas and tourism, the new path opens up a new chapter in the history of Hermanus.”
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