The city's response follows:

ENFORCEMENT: CENTRAL BEACHFRONT

The recent outcry about the behavior of young people visiting the beachfront requires a response indicating what the city is doing about such matters. May I begin though by saying it is most unfortunate that a few such days when we do have challenges are portrayed as if they are the norm. The reality is that they are not. At the same time, there are many things we could have done far better and that is something we will be working on. I do apologise particularly to many elderly residents on North Beach who are held captive and subjected to blaring music, braaiing and disorderly conduct.

The first and ongoing problem around drinking has been to address the problems where people have been gathering at a few drinking spots along the beachfront each weekend (usually Friday nights), bringing their own liquor and creating their own party. This is a regular occurrence where they seem to delight in smashing the bottles on the ground. Every Saturday morning our DSW teams have to then pick up the broken glass. Probably the worst affected areas are Sunkist and XL, but there are a few other such areas.

For the past three months we have cordoned off these two parking lots every weekend and a roadblock conducted on Snell Parade. The results have been fairly good with 313 drivers being arrested for drunken driving in this period and approximately 150 people arrested for drinking in public. Huge amounts of alcohol have been confiscated and handed in at SAPS - Durban Central.

The second and seasonal problem occurs usually during September and October where youngsters arrive from areas as far afield as Limpopo, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape as an end-of-school/year celebration. This is very similar to the Spring Break in the US, the beach resorts in Europe and interestingly in all these situations very similar challenges exist: drinking, littering, disorderliness and the like are all matters which these cities across the world experience. The youngsters live out of their combi-taxi whilst partying, braaiing and drinking on the beachfront. They rarely book accommodation.

On the 26th of September 2008 we held two roadblocks, one in Blue Lagoon and one on Snell Parade, outside Sunkist. 10 drivers were arrested

From around 11p.m. a number of intersections had become gridlocked with over 800-900 taxis coming into the beachfront area. The 55 Metro Police on duty focused their energy on alleviating the congestion.

By 2 a.m. the 55 members coupled with an extra 65 SAPS members were unable to effectively police the 20000 people that arrived on the beach after midnight. Over 40 people were arrested for drinking in public and 10 Minibuses were impounded for parking illegally and for obstructions. A large amount of alcohol was confiscated by both SAPS and Metro Police and 25 people were charged by Metro Police for drinking in public. However, it should be noted that each person that gets arrested takes at least 2 members of the police out of action for 3-4 hours as they have to take them and book them.

What compounded the situation was that there was an illegal strike by some members of Durban Solid Waste and the beachfront did not get cleaned as quickly as it should have.

By late Saturday roads leading to the beach was cordoned off and all the taxis and busses were moved to the drive-in area. This worked reasonably well, allowing the youngsters to continue their celebrations, whilst allowing us to contain somewhat the negative externalities. In the next few weeks we will look at diverting all public service vehicles to the old drive-in site.

We strongly believe these youngsters have every right to visit the beaches, to enjoy themselves and celebrate. But they should do so in ways that keep our wonderful beach environments clean and relatively free of noise pollution.

We are continuing to pursue the following actions:

:: Establishing a permanent FESMAC: During the Christmas period we have a permanent operational structure bringing together all our relevant enforcement and service units and which meets on a daily basis to evaluate problems as they arise and find solutions. I have requested that we ensure that committee operates throughout the year to ensure that we have a mechanism to deal with unforeseen events and challenges.

:: Enforcement: Over the next three months minibuses and busses will be restricted from entering the beach area. This will be done through road closures from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon restricting minibuses entry. In addition, we will focus enforcement on at least the following: (i) Traffic violations; (ii) Drinking in public; (iii) Morpho touch; (iv) no overnight sleeping; (v) no braais.

:: Educational work: We will be deploying tourism ambassadors to interact with school minders and pupils; A register of all school buses in demarcated parking needs to be kept as it might be useful to have a record of place of origin, school, school official responsible, etc.

:: Bylaws: We are developing a set of bylaws which will govern things like making the beachfront a glass-free zone, restricting access, ensuring people do not stay overnight in their cars, addressing vagrancy. Sanctions will include allowing for community service (let people found guilty of drinking in public spend time cleaning up the mess), etc.

Finally, may I say that there is only so much that the city can do to create the conditions in which people enjoy themselves and then to enforce where necessary. Ultimately these are behavioural matters too, requiring far more compliance with the rules we have set and empathy also from those who could assist us in finding solutions but who prefer to only chirp from the sidelines.

In this regard, I would like to invite practical, implementable suggestions from members of the public who share with me a vision that our beaches must be used by all, but in ways that we have respect for each other and for our beautiful environment.

Dr. Michael Sutcliffe
City Manager: eThekwini