The people of Jeffreys Bay voted with their thumbs in the past week when the Our Times ran a survey on Facebook to test the response of readers.
The results are as follows; The YES won by 51 votes to 19. This represents 63% of respondents in favour of Jeffreys Bay being included in the Kwêla town of the year 2015. Interestingly - despite the small number of voters the survey generated over 500 comments as late as Sunday the 18th 23h00 cut-off time.
 |
Municipality workers could be seen this past week,
picking up litter before the Kwela team visits our town |
Article by Bryan Dhludhlu
THE inclusion of Jeffreys Bay as finalist for the town of the year 2015 has certainly ruffled many feathers and stirred a lot of controversy in the last two weeks. Chris de Vos, a local resident, wrote an article in an Afrikaans daily newspaper urging residents to vote for our town as finalist. The newspaper ran a story and confirmed that JBay residents had voted strongly, catapulting the town as one of the three finalists. Much to the anger of the naysayers, Kouga Municipality tourism portfolio head Virginia Camealio-Benjamin welcomed the news.
This was preceded by an article written by Gerhardt Fouche, a well-known local who wrote a scathing report in Our Times (06/05/2015) community page explaining why JBay should NOT even enter the competition. This resulted in a Facebook blowout of huge proportions as both men created camps which polarised followers for and against entering. Coincidentally both men are still part of the 100 reasons petition Committee and both have a deep passion for the town, The dividing issue really is how both men see the glass of water.
Kwela, the TV programme hosts on kyk- NET, will be visiting the town for two days for a formal inspection and possible meet and greet of selected individuals and municipal executives. Whilst this war of words rages on Kwela Town of the Year competition a notable and rushed escalation of clean-ups was visible throughout the town.
More municipal workers than usual were dispatched to pick up litter, cut overgrown and neglected grass and dump trucks where busier than usual.
Our Times’ FB site will be running a FB survey for residents, so please connect and vote, results will be published in the forthcoming edition. One can only appreciate this will bring one clear winner in the end. Ons Dorp van Drome Jeffreys Bay.
Article and photo published: Our Times dated 13/05/2015
and supplied by Maggie White.
