Matt Gennrich: Living the dream

For 40 years, Matt Gennrich gave his life to Volkswagen South Africa, rising to the position of general manager in charge of communications before his retirement in 2018.

Waving goodbye to Uitenhage, he moved to Cape St Francis where he owned a holiday home.

Few people know anything about Cape St Francis, which is just over 100km from Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), other than that it is home to the “perfect wave” immortalised on film in the classic 1966 surfing documentary Endless Summer.

It is in fact one of three villages – the others being Port St Francis and St Francis Bay – that make up Greater St Francis with Seal Point constituting the southeasternmost tip of Africa.

The coastline is dotted with shipwreck sites with over 60 vessels foundering between 1690 and 2024 over the 110km stretch from Storm’s River Mouth to Shark Point.

There are also four small nature reserves that together cover 250ha of coastal habitats that range from beaches and salt-stunted vegetation to fynbos, thickets and small patches of true dune forest (milkwood and candlewood.

They are the Irma Booysen Flora Reserve and the Seal Point, Seal Bay and Cape St Francis Nature Reserves.

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Restoring nature, One reserve at a time

Gennrich, by his own admission, has “always loved going to the bush” and over the years has owned a series of fully kitted-out Volkswagen California camper vans.

However, it was only with retirement that he came to appreciate the natural gems on his doorstep.

Gennrich made contact with the perennially cashstrapped Friends of St Francis Nature Areas (known as Foster, www.foster.org.za).

He suggested they up their communications game if they wanted to attract the funding to turn the reserves into local and tourist attractions.

“They told me to put my money where my mouth was,” he says wryly, “and I became actively involved… so much so that I’ve been the chair for the past three years.”

The organisation gets no funding from government but donations from the private sector and individuals have increased to the extent Foster has been able to employ members of the local community to maintain facilities such as pathways and remove alien vegetation.

The latter includes rooikrans (coastal wattle) and bitou bush, which is an aggressive – albeit attractive – coastal weed that effectively chokes other plant life.

“It’s amazing how quickly these species return when the bitou is removed. Many of them leave bulbs in the ground and, with just a bit of rain and sunlight, they start sprouting.

Thanks to Foster’s efforts, which include regular beach cleans, the St Francis dune system flourishes and the exquisite beaches are pristine.+

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