GR Tourism works with BNLM

GRAAFF-REINET NUUS - On 10 and 11 May, members of the Board of Graaff-Reinet Community Tourism (GRCTO) met with the management and operational teams of the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality (BNLM) to talk about the cleaning of the town.

According to Kim von Behr Imrie, manager of GRCTO, this meeting is groundbreaking as it provides a positive first step towards renewing a collaboration that was officially established in 2009.

"The collaboration was initially established with the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Local Tourism Office (LTO) representative at that time and the then Camdeboo Municipality."

"With the amalgamation of the Camdeboo Municipality with the Ikwezi and Baviaans Municipalities in 2016, the LTO annual stipend fell away.

"This was due, in part, to the complexity of the merger as the new larger Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality District was hampered by inherited debt of the new municipalities," Von Behr Imrie explains.

Traffic and emergency services also assisted with the road marking in Graaff-Reinet this past week.

According to her, the GRCTO found itself responsible for an even greater network of towns (not only Graaff-Reinet, Aberdeen and Nieu-Bethesda but also Steytlerville, Jansenville, Klipplaat, Willowmore and Rietbron).

"The most recent GRCTO funding application was backed by letters from four civic organisations (Graaff-Reinet Heritage Society, Graaff-Reinet Economic Development Forum, The Ratepayers Association and Graaff-Reinet Museums) as well as from local representative Member of Parliament, Samantha Graham-Maré."

BNLM acknowledged the necessity of working together to benefit the town, and said that consideration would be given to the funding application in a tight municipal budget.

Immediate benefits can be seen in town after this new collaboration with partners BNLM and Sanral who is responsible for the R63 and the N9 that run through Graaff-Reinet. Verges are tidied, signage is going up, pavements are repaired, and potholes filled.

Cleaning of the verges.