MY TURN | MY BEURT: Stywe Lyne Tight Lines May 2024

WORDS/WOORDE: Eugene C. Kruger, Editor-in-Chief

In the northern hemisphere certain countries celebrate the official start of their Spring in May by dancing around a pole planted in a town square to which ribbons are attached. People, traditionally young females, grab hold of a ribbon and dance around it. It’s a joyous occasion full of merriment … So here’s my warm welcome to our May issue, may it be joyful …

Here in good old Seffrica I trust May will also deliver a reason for some merriment, particularly for our drone anglers, because on the 22^nd this month the Supreme Court of Appeal sits in Bloemfontein to hear the appeal by our drone angling sector against the now infamous Notice put out some two years ago by the department of environment banning the use of drones. “At long last we will have our voices heard,” comments Jacques Venter, the originator and admin host of the Fair Fishing drone fishing page on Facebook.

But then (sorry, guys!) there is also the call for help, ‘May Day, May Day!’ that does not signal any sort of merriment at all! Here’s hoping that this reference using May is not heard at all, but that the one depicting a cause for ‘joy and merriment’ will resonate throughout the drone fishing community! I, for one, will certainly applaud it!

I just cannot but wonder if the seemingly new-found determination of our water and sanitation department to prosecute municipalities for their contraventions of the national water legislation and general lack of performance as pertaining to their departments of wastewater and the pollution of water that it causes, is merely a sop to gain votes for the ailing ANC, or a credible intention to do their job?

A case in point is the R200 million fine imposed by the Bethal magistrate’s court on the Govan Mbeki Municipality for significant pollution to the environment between November 2019 and September 2020 by releasing raw sewage into the Emzinoni location, eMbalenhle wastewater treatment plant, Trichardt Spruit, Wela Mlambo, Leandra N17 Pump station, Waterval Hoek River, Blesbok Spruit and Groot Spruit.

But how’s this for tragi-comedy: the lawyers for the municipality pleaded for leniency because, so help me, the municipality had accepted responsibility for its actions by pleading guilty, which it was argued, was a sign of remorse … It was sorry for causing so much environmental damage and health risks … Huh?!

This sanction follows a R70 million fine imposed on the Emfuleni Municipality on similar charges. The sewage pollution of the Vaal River is well known and still continues despite so-called remedial actions.

The problem however is that it is the innocent (defenseless!) tax paying citizens who will have to fork out the cash to pay these fines. As various activists and academics – and us ordinary, tax-paying citizens as well (!) – have pointed out, these punishments appear all well and good, but real improvements will only come about when the individual municipal employees are held responsible and are fined or jailed, instead of continually digging into the already strained pockets of taxpayers to pay penalties imposed on government.

There is however some sign of a seemingly rediscovered sense of purpose, direction, duty and responsibility in acting decisively against water and sanitation contraventions. Sadly however, the water infrastructure of the entire country is in a dire state, as reported almost daily in the national media.

The well-known water authority at the University of the Free State’s environmental management faculty, Dr Anthony Turton, says that this development is actually excellent news, and notes that Water and Sanitation Minister Mchunu and the department’s director general, Sean Phillips have evidently decided to hold delinquent municipalities responsible for their obvious shortcomings. Turton describes this action as a “national blitz”, which again involuntarily causes me to cock an eyebrow at its timing and to doubt whether the department will continue the effort after this month’s national election.

But Dr Turton is encouraged by the fact that the national government is beginning to hold individual municipal officials responsible for their mismanagement and to charge them criminally for environmental offences. “It is a move in the right direction,” he states.

In this issue is an entertaining, sincere tale about how Nite Hawk aficionado, Pretoria angler Jurie du Toit, fished one of his extensive collection of Nite Hawk, forward-casting, centrepin reels off the beaches at the Gamtoos River estuary near Jeffreys Bay, and to the surprise of onlookers (maybe also his own as well?) managed to hook and subdue several saltwater species, with the sad exception of his sought after “big one’. (See ‘A Salty Wound’ in this issue).

Why do I regard this as worthy of mention? Well, the Nite Hawk is a truly South African product, the brain child during the 80’s of East Rand tool and dye maker and league-standard freshwater bank angler Bennie Swart. He wanted to develop a reel that could hold a lot of line (a kilometre!) and also be able to cast efficiently (without any tangles!). The Nite Hawk is that reel, and having been involved all those years ago with the field testing of Bennie’s prototypes until he was satisfied it could go into full production, I can attest to his uncompromising attention to even the smallest detail.

Some four decades later the unique sound of a reelrun on a Nite Hawk reel can still be heard as the reel performs superbly on reader du Toit’s regular midweek sessions on local waters such as Roodeplaat and Arabie dams, among others. Even though it is not equipped with a modern-day, technologically advanced drag system, in the hands of an experienced angler it is quite capable of subduing any size fish, not only off a freshwater bank, but also off a beach in saltwater!

But no, before anyone asks, it is (sadly) not in production anymore …

To sign off, this month is election month, so on Wednesday the 29^th, cast your vote early to have the rest of the day available to go cast a line! If you cannot make it to your favourite water, enjoy the fishing on the rest of these autumn, early winter days, and as always, Take Care.

Meanwhile enjoy your angling as autumn makes its cooling appearance, and as always, Take Care.