Overstrand Traffic Department in Hermanus will once again open its doors from 1 October on every second Saturday from 08:30 until 12:00, to accommodate clients with the following services:

• car license renewal
• vehicle registration
• roadworthy testing
• learners’ and drivers’ license bookings
• public driving permits
• payment of traffic fines

The traffic offices in Hermanus will be open Mondays - Fridays from 08:00 - 15:15 and every second Saturday from 08:30 until 12:00.

On Wednesday, 16 September 2020, Overstrand Municipality took Cape Nature Walker Bay and the Department of Environmental Affairs’ (DEA) youth co-ordinators to clean up the beach between Die Gruis near De Kelders and Sopiesklip.

The event forms part of the International Coastal Clean-up Day - an annual global event where thousands of concerned volunteers rally together to collect trash and debris on beaches, rivers and estuaries before it has the chance to wash into the ocean during spring high tide. The theme for 2020 is ‘Trash free Ocean’.

The total tally of rubbish collected by this team alone was sobering.

“We picked up 32 bags of rubbish (weighing 185 kg) in this 5 km stretch,” said Overstrand Municipality’s Environmental Management Services (EMS) field ranger and facilitator of various clean-up projects, Marco Cornelius. He was assisted by DEA Youth Co-ordinator, Steven Njokwana.

The De Bos dam level in Hermanus officially pushed past the 70% mark over the weekend - a goal that has not been reached in four years.

The water situation improved dramatically because of generous rain that fell since May 2020 onwards.

Hermanus had 143 mm of rain during August 2020, which makes a total of 521.8 mm for 2020 to date, compared to the long-term average of 447 mm for the period January to August over the last 50 years.  The total annual average rainfall for Hermanus over the last 50 years is 626 mm, a number that has not been reached since 2014.

Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dudley Coetzee, announced that water restrictions still in force in the Greater Hermanus area will be lifted from tomorrow, 1 September 2020.

Soup kitchens supported by Overstrand Municipality have been operating since soon after lockdown earlier this year.  The Municipal funding for soup kitchens will be redirected to supporting home grown veggie gardens from the end of September.  Food kitchens funded by various NGO’s as well as the Government School feeding Scheme are not affected by this decision.

The Overstrand Municipality’s food aid programme provided just under 1 million meals to vulnerable people in the Overstrand.

This was in addition to the School Feeding Scheme, the Department of Social Development’s food hamper project, the SASSA Relief of Social Distress Programme, and the work done by various faith-based and local community organisations, as well as soup kitchens run by volunteers and NGO’s.