A group of animal welfare advocates gathered on Walter Sisulu Street between the N1 entry and exit point in Cape Town’s CBD on Saturday morning to demonstrate against the V&A Waterfront’s intended New Year’s Eve fireworks display.
Also read: SPCA urges the V&A to cancel its NYE fireworks display for animal safety
Organised by Beauty Without Cruelty, members from various animal welfare forums including Animal Lifeline, Feral Cat Project, Foster Furry Rescue, Hero in my Hood, as well as the city’s MMC for safety and security JP Smith attended.
The animal organisation said it had invited the V&A Waterfront to attend and accept its petition at the protest but reportedly received radio silence on the matter.
In response, Brockoven said BWC has ‘therefore emailed the objections from the Tableview Ratepayers Association, 750 Sunset Beach residents, 59 Animal Welfare organisations and close to 1 350 signatures denouncing a return of New Year fireworks’.
In 2020, the V&A Waterfront pledged to ‘heed the call to do away with fireworks altogether’ and committed to ‘marking the start of the New Year’s celebration in a safe and environmentally friendly manner’, said BWC’s Toni Brockhoven in a petition launched near the end of November.
This year, however, the Waterfront sang a different tune with the inclusion of a five-minute fireworks display in its New Year’s Eve celebration lineup.
The announcement sparked heated debates and uproar from the animal welfare community, as well as confusion regarding how the Waterfront was granted a permit.
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IOL reported that JP Smith confirmed that there are no official designated fireworks sites in the metropole but said the Waterfront obtained a permit from SAPS in terms of the Explosives Act.
According to the SPCA, who had approached the City, said the City’s events and environmental health departments issued an exemption noise pollution permit for the New Year’s Eve event to continue, reported EWN.
At the time of the demonstration, Animal Lifeline said on Facebook that it had been announced that the City of Cape Town’s environmental health department withdrew its noise exception permit.
There is, however, no written evidence of this as yet and the Waterfront still reserves the right to appeal the withdrawal.
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Picture: Toni V Brockhoven / Facebook