Boozing beachgoers ‘tolerated’
City admits it’s wrong to drink at the seaside, but struggles to find solution
Boozy beachgoers are proving to be a real headache for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
However, city officials say that while they cannot stop people from drinking on the beaches, it will not stop them from policing it.
This, as they struggle to find a solution to the festive season drinking frenzy along Marine Drive and Wells Estate beach.
The metro appears to have relaxed its stance two years after former mayor Athol Trollip announced a total ban on alcohol at the city’s beaches, saying that it might have no alternative but to tolerate drinking at some of the beaches
But law enforcement would have to step in if anyone was actually caught drinking, the city warned.
The municipality’s acting executive director of sports, recreation, arts and culture, Kithi Ngesi, said at a portfolio committee meeting on Friday that the city was battling to curb drinking along the beaches, particularly during the peak summer season.
“We have had discussions to say we know it is wrong to drink in that area, but for the lack of us as a city providing a space to drink, perhaps there is nothing we can do but to tolerate drinking at Marine Drive during peak season,” she said.
“But while we allow people to drink in that area, we also have law enforcement which will control drinking in the area.”
She said Kings Beach used to be a “drinking” beach, but the city never provided an alternative when alcohol was banned on the beach.
“What we have seen is that when drinking was stopped, people had nowhere else to drink.
“This is a difficult conundrum that we are in as a city.
“And to be honest I am also at odds in terms of trying to address it,” she said.
Ngesi was responding to written questions from DA councillor Renaldo Gouws, who said the city had failed to enforce the drinking ban bylaw in previous years.
Quizzed on Monday about the fact that the municipality was allowing drinking at First Beacon and further along Marine Drive, Ngesi was adamant that the city was not turning a blind eye to drinkers.
“Even though we know people drink there, we can’t say that we will turn a blind eye.
“When people leave, the metro police is going to stop them.
“We cannot allow people to drink at the beach, but we have to anticipate that people are going to drink.
“And while they are going to do that, we are saying let’s beef up on law enforcement so they know that they will be arrested – we can’t turn a blind eye.
“There is signage there that says no drinking.
“Metro police will do patrols as people drink until the wee hours of the morning.
“People go there and they think they will get away with murder, but they will be arrested,” she said.
Ngesi, however, said she was worried that drinking at Wells Estate Beach could affect the recently obtained pilot blue flag status.
“We are worried, because if a compliance inspection is carried out at Wells Estate on January 2nd, then the blue flag programme will be lost.
“We are trying to see how we can get around that.
“We are trying to see if we can’t get a temporary exemption for those two days and say that we will bring the flag down because we realise that people are going to drink, and then perhaps put the flag up on the third day.
“On the other hand, are we saying we are going to allow people to drink while we all know that Blue Flag beaches are areas where drinking is not supposed to take place?
“For us as a city this is a challenge. It is not a sports and recreation issue, it’s a city issue and it’s a behavioural issue.”
Gouws, whose questions were centred around the impact that drinking at beaches had on waste and refuse, said he had noticed that the matter had not been properly handled the previous year.
“I felt that there were some areas that the beach office was not successful in,” he said.
“These include drinking at the beaches during peak season, crime prevention and waste management which I feel wasn’t really applied across the board.
“The previous season had issues with regards to drinking at the beach.
“I know there were designated areas but I feel that it wasn’t enforced enough.”
Gouws said he suspected the police were short-staffed last summer.
“The metro police did the best with what they had, but I feel it wasn’t policed well enough and I feel that there were certain instances where it was obvious, and this was linked with waste management,” he said.
“We want to make sure that we are prepared for the launch of the summer season.”
Gouws is one of the councillors nominated to form part of the committee which will oversee the city’s readiness for the summer season.
In February 2017, when the UDM was still in coalition with the DA, ACDP and COPE, mayor Mongameli Bobani – who was public health portfolio head at the time – said the city would not compromise on banning alcohol at beaches.
“As this government, we have to ensure we are improving. Alcohol, as you know, is banned on our beaches. We are not going to compromise,” he said at the time.