Sustaining the Wild Coast, in collaboration with AVIS Rent-a-car, Ramsgate Stationers, Ramsgate Conservancy and Margate Furnishers wish to invite media and members of the public to the launch of the "Too Great a Toll" 2012 Calendar starting at 11.00 sharp at the South Coast Mall, Shelley Beach, KZN, on 5th November 2011.

 

SWC has produced the calendar for the AmaDiba community of the Wild Coast to raise funds for their court challenge to compel the Minister of Environment to withdraw the environmental authorization she gave for a short cut in the N2 route between Durban and East London along the Pondoland Wild Coast.

 

Programme:

• Welcome and Introduction. Patricia Glyn, well known South African eco- adventurer, writer and inspirational speaker, will anchor the show.
• Re-membering, Re-visioning and Re-claiming. Screening of the 50|50 film recently broadcast by SABC 2 on the revival of eco-tourism in the wake of the success of the Amadiba community in stopping the mining of their ancestral lands. It features additional footage of South Africa's internationally renowned Planet Saving Wild Lawyer Cormac Cullinan, who represents the local residents in their legal challenge to the road, explaining why the proposed short cut will exact too great a toll.
• Keynote address. Wayne Duvenage CEO of AVIS Rent-a-car, sponsors of the calendar, will inspire us to all 'try harder' to make sure that 'people and the environment are indeed more important than cars', as the Avis brand promise states.
• Vote of Thanks. Samson Gampe, a wise elder from the Sigidi village who features prominently in the Calendar will give a vote of thanks and explain why he does not want the road passing though the ancestral lands of the amaDiba. An orator of distinction, it was arguably Samson Gampe's closing speech at the Tribal Courthouse in September 2008, which finally convinced former Minister of Mining Buyelwa Sonjica that she had made a big mistake in presuming that the amaDiba were in favour of mining the Wild Coast.
• Draw for a prize for a special weekend for two at the Mtentu River Lodge.