Bumper Easter weekend on the North Coast

Visitors from across the country descended on the Dolphin Coast for the long Easter weekend, flocking to the beaches, clogging up the roads and engaging in more than a little retail therapy.

The Ballito Junction saw a bumper crowd of about 180 000 shoppers and both the Ballito Lifestyle and Tiffany’s centres reported high traffic into stores and restaurants.

Tiffany’s Centre manager Nicky Vorster said holidaymakers were out in force and they had a wonderful, busy weekend. The Lifestyle Centre reported that if the parking lot was anything to go by, shoppers certainly did not shy away over Easter.

However the weather was not kind to the restaurant industry with Mo-Zam-Bik’s Brett Michielin saying their weekend was slower than last year’s – mainly due to the cold and overcast conditions – but for the whole of April so far they are already more than 50% up on 2016.

Things were very similar on the accommodation front, with Ballito Accommodation’s Christine Grobler saying they were just over 80% capacity, which is a small dip from last year. But for the month of April, accommodation is up on last year.

Crime, road accidents and beach safety were all improved from last Easter. Umhlali SAPS spokesperson Vinny Pillay said the police had a much quieter long weekend than 2016.

“We had 23 cases over the weekend: three residential burglaries, one housebreaking, one business robbery, two cases of theft, one of rape and one of common assault with the remainder being minor cases,” Pillay said.

The business robbery was at Tiffany’s Cell C, where four armed men held up the shop on Sunday morning.

A man was killed in a freak accident on the N2, when he was struck by a car after stopping to help his brother change a flat tyre.

Meanwhile the golden sands of the North Coast attracted even more visitors than last year with KwaDukuza Lifeguard supervisor Bongani Xulu saying the beaches were packed.
“We saw nearly twice as many beachgoers as last year,” said Xulu.

There was only one incident on Sunday afternoon when a nine-year-old boy from Newcastle was swept out by a rip current at Clarke Bay. Lifeguards rescued the boy and paramedics stabilised him before taking him to Stanger Hospital.

>>  Expect to find the latest trends in Health, Wellness and Beauty in Ballito.

>> Meet the top players in the North Coast property industry. See our Property People feature.

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