Knysna's new mayor, Dr Joy Cole, a criminal justice expert, has taken over a town bursting at the seams and she, along with the town's crack management team, are determined to bring about a financially disciplined and performance-driven town that will benefit all its inhabitants.
Joy Cole, an academic and a highly experienced businesswoman (she is chairman of Kensani Corrections Management, the operating company that runs the maximum security prison in Makhado) is acutely aware of the challenges facing Knysna.
"We also realise as a municipality that this lavish environment creates commitments and challenges."
The council's priorities are:
o to let all population groups and communities share these resources and participate in the development and wealth
o to spread economic activities to all sub-regions of the area
o to make sure that development plans are transparent and all decisions are based on broad consensus
o to protect the natural environment and assume sustainable development
"Most pronounced is the challenge to fully incorporate the outlying townships into the urban development process, and to let tourism-related activities 'flow over' into the townships," says Mayor Cole.
She points out that Knysna's strong resource base allows the private sector to play a central, if not dominant role in the economic-development process, with the public sector shaping the process and assuming social justice.
"This calls for close cooperation and partnership with private-sector stakeholders and players, both at local and district levels. Similarly, it makes us keen to see outside investors utilise and expand on local business opportunities thereby making Knysna-Sedgefield a genuinely cosmopolitan centre."