Beach parties spiral out of control

Westbrook and Blythedale’s beaches looked more like landfills the morning after the Reconciliation Day holiday.

Hundreds of alcohol bottles, plastic, food containers and other rubbish lay strewn around the parking lots, braai and grassy areas overlooking Westbrook’s beach.

Danie Swanepoel, a Westbrook resident, was appalled at what he saw on Tuesday morning.

“I have never seen it like this, not even on new year’s day,” he said.

“I am not one to complain about litter and other problems but it honestly looks like a dump site, how can the authorities allow this to happen,” said Swanepoel.

Bafana Mkhize, another local, was at the main car park and was quite unhappy with the state of Westbrook’s main beach.

“It is really bad, if people do not do this in Durban, why do they do it here,” he asked.

“Who is going to clean it up and where will the money come from?”

Mkhize said he had asked some of the revellers to clean up after themselves but most were not keen to help.

Local PR councillor Geoff Pullan was at the beach early in the morning asking people to help clean up the mess they had made.

“I was really disappointed, the litter and broken bottles was terrible. Nobody is saying people cannot have fun but the general mess was just so unnecessary.”

Metro police also arrived at the beach in the morning and turned off the music which ended the party.

Pullan phoned Ethekwini to ask for help to clean the mess.

Pullan also spoke to eThekwini speaker, Logie Naidoo, who also lives in Westbrook, about the problem.

“The speaker said he was also kept awake and said calling the police was probably the only option residents were left with.”

Pullan believes the issue boils down to social control.

“It seems that youngsters do whatever they like with no control or consequences. We could turn the beach into paid parking areas, or even close the beaches but why should the majority of people who behave suffer because of a group that wants to act like hooligans?”

According to a spokesperson for the Blythedale Ratepayers Association (BRPA), the village was in an even worse state after thousands of people descending on the area yesterday.

Hundreds of taxis and cars filled up the car park and partied through the night.

“It is a disgrace that this type of behaviour is taking place and it is very concerning that the community security and SAPS acknowledged that they could not do anything about it,” the spokesperson said.

Veronica O’Dwyer, the litigation partner at Schulz Wiesinger O’Dwyer law firm and a resident in Blythedale, was up all night due to the noise from the beach.

She phoned officials at KwaDukuza municipality and Umhlali SAPS and both parties conceded that the situation was uncontrollable.

“It was totally out of control, I would even say it was anarchy. The way people were behaving was unacceptable,”she said.

According to both O’Dwyer and the BRPA spokesperson, people were also driving around drunk.

“I shudder to think what holiday-makers would think, we cannot put up with this sort of thing for two weeks,” said O’Dwyer.