It’s a no go for Africa Day Festival at Gwaiing

GEORGE NEWS - The annual local Africa Day Festival which was set to take place at Gwaiing River Mouth this weekend, has been postponed.

This follows after the George Municipality informed the organisers of the Outenikwa-Stat Africa Day Festival on 21 May that social gatherings at all municipal properties - in this case Gwaiing Resort/caravan park and kiosk - remain prohibited under George Municipality Covid-19 disaster management protocol.

Since receiving the bad news last week, the organisers have been trying frantically to convince the relevant municipal decisionmakers to change their minds, but to no avail, and today, Thursday 27 May at 12:30, the municipality affirmed its position in response to an early morning appeal by e-mail from Hein Scheepers, one of the festival facilitators.

In its response the municipality states it has no malicious intent and that several other requests for events have also been denied.

The municipality also told Scheepers the organisers had been informed on 23 April that the approval of the event at Gwaiing was “not recommended”.

“The municipality supports responsibly managed events on other premises and has indicated to the event organisers that a population certificate could still be issued if they could find an alternative private site and adhered to all relevant requirements,” the municipality responded, continuing as follows, “The issue of the population certificate remains the responsibility of the George Local Municipality in accordance with the By-Law Relating to Community Fire Safety… we are living in unprecedented times and are navigating uncharted waters - where critical decisions need to be taken in order to keep the public and the municipality safe.

"It should not be construed that we believe you will not follow the Covid-19 protocols, but we have to remain fair and consistent in our application of the decisions made.”

George Municipality concluded: “We would like to invite you [Scheepers] to engage with the municipality for any future events, in order to have a well-planned and executed event that serves the purpose of the Outenikwa-Stat House of Rastafari.”

Festival facilitator, Hein Scheepers of Outenikwa-Stat House of Rastafari.

Scheepers is very unhappy with the decision, particularly as the organisers only received a clear “no” four working days prior to the event. “For now the event is postponed. We will do a Heritage Day Festival in September if National does not bring restrictions back to a level that stops all outdoor events,” Scheepers said.

The organisers are notifying festivalgoers – many of whom paid upfront - about the cancellation by distributing a festival poster online plastered with the following words: Covid-19; Delayed; Blocked; Cancelled; Denied; Rescheduled; Terminated.

The online poster informing festivalgoers that Africa Day will not be celebrated this weekend.