Legal and environmental concerns surround Prince’s Grant’s New Year’s Eve fireworks
Questions arose over permits and wildlife disturbance, prompting scrutiny of estate practices.

Prince’s Grant’s spectacular New Years Eve fireworks displays have ignited a tinder box of controversy.
In a letter recently published in the Courier, Blythedale resident Jenni Ruttledge expressed her concern about two separate fireworks displays held on the beach in front of Prince’s Grant eco-estate on New Year’s Eve, questioning the legality of these events.
KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) by-laws relating to the control of fireworks and explosives only make legal provision for fireworks displays on November 5, January 1 and during the seven days of the Deepavali Festival.
Permission for public display of fireworks within the municipal area on any other days, for example December 31, has to be obtained at least 21 days prior from two departments – the KZN Explosives Department (commonly known as the Saps bomb squad) and the local designated municipal fire officer.
In a circular to residents, the Prince’s Grant Home Owners Association (PGHOA) claimed they had obtained permits for the two fireworks displays at 8pm and midnight on the day. However, KDM refuted this claim.
Responding to questions from the Courier, the estate’s acting general manager, Alex Albertse, said their pyrotechnics service provider had obtained a permit from the Chief Inspector of Explosives KZN but declined to provide us with a copy of the permit or to reveal the identity of the service provider, citing the POPI Act.
The Courier reached out to Saps KZN explosives unit commander, Colonel Nicholas Gunter, to verify Albertse’s claim but had not received a written response at the time of going to print.
KDM Fire and Emergency Service’s Anash Naidoo explained that two permits were required because the permit from the bomb squad only applied to the legal storage and transportation of explosives.
“When something goes wrong, it is not the bomb squad but the fire department who will have to come out and extinguish the fire, therefore municipal by-laws require that permission also has to be obtained from the fire department,” said Naidoo.
KDM spokesperson Sifiso Zulu confirmed neither Prince’s Grant management nor their appointed pyrotechnics technician submitted an application to the municipality for a fireworks display on December 31.
He said KDM had not received any fireworks applications from the estate in previous years, suggesting this was the fourth consecutive illegally held New Year’s Eve fireworks display since 2020.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s regional marine ecologist, Santosh Bachoo said the habitat surrounding the estate, including the coastal swamp forest, the uMdlotane estuary – which happens to be one of the cleanest in the country – rated in a B condition and near natural, and the uThukela Marine Protected Area east of it were important refuge areas for small animals and birds.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Irene Hatton said that compared to humans, animals were more sensitive to high-frequency noise. She said loud bangs often drove them to abandon their young and disrupted their breeding and feeding behaviours.
Albertse dismissed Ruttledge’s claims that the animals had suffered as “speculative, inaccurate and exaggerated and without merit”.
He highlighted how the estate’s wildlife and animal policies have seen local wildlife flourish.
“Ms. Ruttledge’s attack on the estate activities we feel are short sighted and only focuses on her personal issue and not the significant total positive impact the estate has made with regards to wildlife and the protection of species.”
He defended the estate, saying Prince’s Grant and specifically the Home Owners Association (HOA) will always strive to operate within the ambit of the law and always take into account the wishes of the majority of the community.
“The disturbance on local wildlife was minimal and if at anytime the HOA fails to meet these objectives, it will not be by design.”
Follow The North Coast Courier on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube for breaking news
WhatsApp Broadcast Service: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BdGZsGJEAf04AXZ2yLWi8T