Page 110 - Bulletin 18 2014

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Elizabeth, East London and Durban. A report was produced but no action followed. In June

1909 a conference was held between the municipality, the CPPA, and the City of Cape Town.
In October an in-principle agreement was reached “that the Capetown Corporation should

take over all the liabilities, rights and assets of the Kalk Bay Municipality and administer the
Municipality as a ward to be known as the Kalk Bay Ward.” Amalgamation hinged around

“the desirability of steps being taken in the interests of the whole community [the Cape
Peninsula] to develop the bathing and seaside attractions of Muizenberg and Kalk Bay.”

However, in December Mayor Rutter informed the City that his Council had decided to

commence with construction of a bathing pavilion and was raising the necessary funds. In
January 1910 the KB-MM advised that the proposed amalgamation was premature as it

seemed unlikely the City would be empowered to commence with the facilities in the near

future. In March the KB-MM declared that amalgamation was impossible on the proposed
differential rating system in which Kalk Bay’s rate in the £ would have been greater than

Capetown’s. It carried out its pavilion plans and the pavilion was duly opened on 29 October
1910 by the Administrator Sir Frederic de Waal. For the moment, therefore, amalgamation

between the CoCT and the KB-MM was off the table.

Cape Town invests in Water

In the end, it was only Cape Town that wanted amalgamation. For in Cape Town a minor

revolution had occurred by the 1890s. The old ‘Dirty Party’ that had resisted reform in order
to keep down the rates, had given way to the ‘Clean Party’ that was willing to invest in

municipal services. There was a kind of giddy euphoria about the potential of Table

Mountain, for instance:

“The majestic mountain range of the Cape Peninsula is a vast watershed,

accumulating countless streams which empty themselves into the sea. The reservoir

of Nature is now to be turned to good account, and a volume of water tracking its
course over unnumbered boulders and rushing down the dizzy chasms in the