Legal stand-off between groups supporting and opposing ruling on nudist beach

ORGANISATIONS supporting and opposing a South Coast beach officially being declared a nudist site have vowed to draw their legal guns should the public protector’s keenly-awaited investigation not rule in their favour.

“We won’t lie around and do nothing. We will get the best lawyers. We are part of the International Naturist Federation, which has its own big cases worldwide,” said Athol “Lofty” Lutge, chairman of the SA National Naturists Association.

But the Concerned Citizens Group’s pastor Reggie John said they considered it a victory when the nudist beach was temporarily closed.

The group opposed the Hibiscus Coast Municipality when they granted an application to have Mpenjati beach declared KwaZulu-Natal’s first official nudist haven in 2014, pending the investigation and said they would take the matter “as far as need be”.

“If we lose, then it will be a sad day for our country – we will have compromised our morals,” said John.

“Nudists even allow children and they say ‘just cover it with a towel’. Can you imagine what those children are exposed to?”

The office of the public protector has completed its investigation and it is only a matter of time before the report is released. Deputy Public Protector Kevin Malunga met with interested parties in Durban last year, giving them until September to compile and make submissions.

Spokesperson Oupa Segalwe said the report would go through “the necessary steps of quality assurance and getting comments from affected parties”.

Meanwhile, signs warning of nudists on the beach have been taken down and nudity is still a prosecutable offence.

“That beach is so secluded, no one can see it from any house or the road.

“It’s been used as a naturist beach for the past 30 years,” said Lutge.

“Before this official talk started, there were nudists there, but they didn’t walk around brazenly… they were very cautious and stayed near the bushes because they knew other people might come at any moment.”

Lutge said that with 30 million naturists around the world, South Africa was missing out on the economic benefits.

“We literally have people waiting to invest in resorts around this beach. Naturist resorts bring huge economic impact.

“People from all over the world will bring their dollars and pounds here.”

He labelled those opposed to the beach as narrow-minded and did not understand why some people’s choice to bathe in the nude was such an issue for others.

But John said they were opposing the beach on the basis of morality.

“We cannot expose our children to public nudity, which is illegal in South Africa anyway. They can do whatever they want in their private spaces, but the seashore belongs to the people of South Africa and you can’t take a portion of that and give it to a specific group.

“Just now everyone will want their own private beach,” he said.

There was no justification for “compromising morality” and it would make it difficult to “challenge prostitution,” said John.

“Look at the rise in prostitution where less is more. Now they want people walking around totally naked. We are all aroused by what our eyes see and so you can’t suddenly behave as if we are desensitised to nakedness.

“If this nudist beach is allowed, it will send the country into a spiral of immorality.”

‘We cannot expose our children to public nudity, which is illegal’