Overstrand Municipality will allow businesses in Hermanus High Street and Harbour Road to extend their trading on to the pavements adjacent to their businesses on Saturday, 29 April 2023.

This is an effort to test the Mayor’s policy of increased pedestrianisation as well as the informal trading policy currently considered for implementation.

The intention is to assist commerce to maximise on the long weekend’s trading potential and recover some of the losses incurred during the past two years. 

Business owners in High Street and Harbour Road can invite complementary businesses to share their pavement. 

Overstrand Municipality successfully burned 80 hectares of Blesberg Mountain in Betty’s Bay on 4 April 2023. In addition to restore and improve the ecological biodiversity of an area, controlled burns are one of the most practical ways to reduce the build-up of combustible fuels.

While the active phase of the prescribed burn was completed on Tuesday evening, mop-up operations and monitoring continued through Friday morning when it started to rain.

Overstrand Municipality is reminding residents to register on the municipal indigent database to qualify for free basic services.

The Finance Department will assist needy households to register and/or re-apply for Indigent Subsidy support and to update the indigent database on the following Saturdays:

• Hawston Thusong: 22 & 29 April from 09:00 - 12:00
• Zwelihle Community Hall: 22 & 29 April from 09:00 - 12:00
• Proteadorp Community Hall, Kleinmond: 22 & 29 April from 09:00 - 12:00
• Gansbaai Municipal Offices: 22 & 29 April from 09:00 - 12:00

Assistance will also be available during the week at any of the municipal offices.

Overstrand will once again take part in this year's annual bioblitz of the City Nature Challenge (CNC) from 28 April to 1 May 2023.

The purpose of this bioblitz worldwide event is to record as many living species as possible within designated areas across the globe, as well as to engage the public in citizen science and nature learning - to increase biodiversity awareness and encourage citizens to actively contribute to the understanding of where plants, animals, and fungi occur as well as pin-pointing invasive or threatened species.

According to Sandy Immelman, Overstrand Bioblitzing Facilitator, "we will need everyone on board to photograph living creatures and plants in our area over the four days and load the photos to the iNaturalist app (there are plenty of easy videos to watch if you’re new to this app).”