Page 77 - KBHA Bulletin 11

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did - onto Muizenberg beach. Fresh water was unobtainable in Kalk Bay except by
buying it by the bucket-full from vendors.

The leading inhabitants roused themselves to action and Kalk Bay was, by Proclamation

97 of 26 March 1891, placed under the control of a Village Management Board. This

elected body immediately set about making the most basic improvements. Money was
borrowed and refuse and stercus carts with hermetically sealed nightsoil tubs were

purchased. Stercus tubs were exchanged once a week for 6d. or 1s. depending on the
valuation of the property. Refuse was burnt on land far to the east of Muizenberg. A

Cape Flats farmer contracted to receive the contents of the stercus tubs to fertilize his
lands. Drains were allowed to discharge into the sea only in eight specific places, and

plans were considered how best to get a pure water supply.

A full-scale Municipality was created by Proclamation 186 of 2nd May 1895, with

control over an area of 8,500 acres, including Kalk Bay from the mouth of the

Silvermine River, through St. James, and Muizenberg, to Lakeside, and a catchment
area of several square miles around the headwaters of the Silvermine River up in the

mountains above Muizenberg. In 1897 they obtained an Act of Parliament to authorize
improvements. The Act empowered them on the one hand to raise loans for public

improvements, and on the other, authorized certain improvements and facilities which
could be leased as concessions to generate underlying income. The Act specifically

mentions piers, pavilions, boat houses, a harbour, development of Zandvlei, and the

construction of esplanades.

Municipal Utilities and Amenities

Utilities can be regarded as those fundamental engineering works which make urban life
possible, and generally can only be constructed once a local authority (such as a

municipality) is set up with borrowing and taxing powers. Utilities include the supply of

pure water, and the removal and safe disposal of refuse and faecal matter (stercus is the
term commonly used in Cape Town) as the most important; then come the provision of