Page 7 - Bulletin 17 2013

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Crown lands in the municipal area, with some slight exceptions, in the Council of the
Municipality, and the proceeds of the sales of all these lands are to be devoted to
permanent public works. The further powers are to set apart a commonage, to
construct a breakwater at Kalk Bay for the protection of the fishery, to construct piers
and bathing establishments, to convert the Muizenberg vlei into a permanent lake for
aquatic pastimes, and to make an esplanade along the Muizenberg beach, also to
make regulations for controlling the fishery, piers, breakwater, bathing establish-
ments, lake, and beach. This Act has been passed for the benefit not only of the
inhabitants and ratepayers, but in the interests of visitors and of the Colony generally.
The powers granted are large, but if the Council will make good use of them there is
no doubt that Muizenberg - Kalk Bay can be made the queen of watering-places of
South Africa. ....... powers are granted to the Council for dealing with capitalists, as it
is not likely that Municipal funds will be free for these purposes for many years to
come.

A complete survey of all Municipal lands should be undertaken as soon as possible,
with a view of laying out all available lands for sale in a manner best suited for future
development, and of reserving such other lands as may best appear suited for a
commonage park, and open spaces, and for the sites of drainage works, and in laying
out lands the necessary roads should have most careful attention, especially a high-
level road along the slopes of the mountain from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay.

Muizenberg at this time offered few beach amenities and was described in the following
way in the local guide-books:

The Cape Town Guide, 1897: 43 & 79

Muizenberg, situated on the Downs of False Bay, with its expansive beach, safe at
all times for bathing, with a unique geographical situation, with its balmy breezes laden
with the life-giving ozone of the South Pacific, and with its surrounding scenery the most
beautiful on the coast line, has well deserved the appellation of the Cape Riviera. In
climate Muizenberg approaches the nearest of any South African seaside resort to the
Riviera of the Mediterranean, and in the near future promises to rival it by the influx of a
wealthy population, not only from the great money-making centres of our own continent,
but from Europe. The water is not of so low a temperature as at Woodstock. Bathing
houses in connection with the various boarding houses, hotels and private houses, are
erected at intervals along the beach. Although none are open to the general public, two
bathing screens have been erected on the beach, one for gentlemen, and ladies, which are
very convenient for strangers and others who cannot use the bathing houses.

May well be considered the pleasantest of the Cape watering-places. It rejoices in
a splendid stretch of sand shelving down so gradually into the sea as to make bathing