Debriefing on the past festive season

A DEBRIEFING session was held at the council chambers on Tuesday to discuss issues surrounding last year’s festive season, and to highlight problem areas in order to fix them before this year’s season approaches.

After a brief but informative slide show, presented by acting community protection services director Fanie Fouche, the meeting was opened up to allow members of the public to comment.

Present at the meeting were representatives from various civic associations in the area, including the Port Alfred Residents and Ratepayers Association (Parra), residents from Kenton and Bushman’s River, the press and other civic organisations. Ndlambe traffic officers were also present, together with SAPS representatives.

However, most notable was that Ward 10 councillor Ray Schenk was the only councillor present.

Further, neither the speaker of the council Vivian Maphaphu, nor any other senior Ndlambe municipal administrator was present.

The main issues discussed were the old perennials, including drinking at the Krantz area, traffic control, drinking on the beach, drowning over the season, lack of ablution facilities and rubbish bins.

A question regarding drinking being allowed in the Krantz area was posed along with the suggestion that it must be decided whether the krantz is a drinking area or not.

Tim Cockbain of Parra commended the municipality, the police and the volunteers on the work they did over the season, but said that, if it is decided that drinking at the Krantz is not going to be allowed, this should happen all year round, and not just over the festive season.

Cockbain said bottle stores should not enjoy extended trading hours. He also reported that East Beach was a disaster on New Year’s Day and, with an estimated 30 000 visitors in town, more control over access to vehicles must be considered.

“Education is the real problem here. If people are made aware of restrictions well in advance, it should prove helpful,” he said.

Cockbain also asked for more bins and portable toilets.

CPF chairwoman Heather Leicher agreed education was a problem, and that those responsible should advertise in order to educate. She also suggested that water points were required.

Shirley Marais said that while visitors should be encouraged to come into town, she wanted to know how much Ndlambe actually benefit in terms of revenue.

“It costs us money to lay on facilities for the visitors, to clean up after them and to keep the traffic moving and stop people from dying on the roads and on the beaches. But how much does anyone make from this influx of visitors?”

Station commander Colonel Lizette Zeelie countered that all shops in the area made money, but warned that serious crime would always take priority over bylaw offences.

“We do not have enough resources to man every access point, monitor drinking and make arrests and still deal with serious crime,” she said.

Bill Northrop from Bushman’s River Ratepayers Association (Brrag) complained about sewage pumpouts taking two weeks to attend to, and how this was unacceptable over the festive season. He also wanted to know about the water supply, and keeping it constant when holidaymakers were there.

Brrag chairwoman Sheila Swanepoel thanked the municipality for the lifeguards on the beaches, and confirmed the problems of sewage and water, saying she planned in advance for the municipal honeysucker, and that it arrived as scheduled.

Schenk said that Ndlambe was a destination of choice and agreed with Zeelie that there was an economic spin-off.

Finally, traffic chief Fred Cannon said his resources could not control all points and that more trained volunteers were necessary.