Ballito shops prepare to reopen on Friday

Large grocery stores and other retailers in the greater Ballito area will open in a carefully managed way on Friday, July 16.

This was decided at a meeting of stakeholders late this afternoon.

These included ward councilors, the leaders of the civilian and private security efforts protecting the town who are working with Saps and the army; local police; representatives of local businesses, grocery stores and other commercial retail outlets; organized community bodies such as the iLembe Chamber and Ballito UIP, the Dolphin Coast Taxi Association and the local media.

At this meeting it was agreed to create the Greater Ballito Operations Centre (GBOC) to which a leadership team has been appointed to drive the management and provision of essential services.

The primary focus was to create an ‘Emergency integrated operational plan’ for the greater Ballito area.

This will be prepared by a number of task teams constituted by experts in their respective fields to cover:

• Security and access control
• Business, retailers and healthcare
• Communications and stakeholder engagements
• Municipal services and utilities (electricity, water, sewerage etc)
• Solid waste
• Fuel
• NPO / NGO support

Salt Rock resident Warwick Chapman was elected as chief executive of the GBOC, to coordinate the task teams’ efforts.

“Given the stablisation of the security situation, our priority now is access to food and pharmaceutical product,” said Chapman.

He said it was agreed that large grocery stores and other retailers would open with a managed approach on Friday, July 16, on the basis that:

• the Greater Ballito’s food / goods supply is not compromised in any way by the opening;
• shopping for food and goods be done on a basis that is fair and equitable to all people in the greater Ballito area;
• areas within the greater Ballito area are to be prioritized;
• measures will be agreed by the Food Security task team and put in place to ensure restrictions on the amount of products to be purchased to avoid hoarding and over-shopping;
• measures will be agreed and put in place to ensure that the flow of people shopping from outlying areas is managed as to not compromise food security and infrastructure, but gives fullest access possible to the greater Ballito community members; and
• other possible steps to assist areas falling outside of the greater Ballito be considered at a later stage.

Chapman said they would provide more information on how this would be achieved during the course of tomorrow.

“The GBOC thanks the community of the greater Ballito area for the patience and restraint shown and undertakes that it will do its utmost to ensure the fair and equitable access to foods and essential goods,” he said.