Trail of filth mars New Year
FESTIVITIES were marred for both holidaymakers and Port Alfred residents alike by the trail of filth left by revellers celebrating New Year on the beachfront.
Those who ventured out on January 2, were dismayed at the scene which greeted them.
“Did people actually do this?” a prominent local businessman who did not want to be identified, said from his car.
Litter of all sorts was strewn along the river bank, in parking lots, on the West Pier, in the dunes, and on all walkways in close proximity to the sea.
West Beach Drive was littered with broken beer bottles which sparkled in the sun.
At the entrance to the West Beach parking area a lone municipal officer was seen evaluating the situation from his vehicle. “The cleaners will be here soon,” he said.
A visitor from the Free State struggled to finds words to describe his dismay.
Empties of virtually every type and brand of liquor were scattered along the ground for as far as the eye could see.
“This is a clear indication that the ‘zero tolerance‘ campaign against the drinking of alcohol in public failed dismally,” the businessman said.
No arrests were made during the weekend for drinking alcohol in public places despite clear evidence that huge quantities had been consumed.
Discarded paper and plastic bags carrying the brand of many fast food outlets decorated public areas.
Even the beachfront night club, the Snorting Grunter, known for its own heavy partying, took a beating from revellers, who broke down a fence at the back of the club to use its benches.
The remnants of fires made in the parking lot at West Beach were still clearly visible, some still smoldering, long after sunrise.
An elderly man in disbelief uttered that the place was “really very dirty”.
Toilets were ripped apart at the Guido‘s Sports Bar after revellers in search of public facilities trespassed by climbing onto the deck of the closed business to use their toilets, because existing public facilities could not cope with the demand.
Others just headed to the dunes where the stench of human faeces was evident in the morning breeze.
Despite the large crowds which descended on the beaches no additional toilet facilities were noticeable.
But for some the mess created opportunities. Jobless people were seen scavenging for unbroken bottles for resale.
The mess spilled over into the CBD when revellers went in search of food at the KwikSpar in town.
Empty bottles and packaging materials were literally dumped in front of the store by costume wearing “party animals”.
Security staff at Settler Sands said that they had a difficult time preventing entry to the complex.
“They all tried to get to the toilets,” one said.
“To think that Port Alfred recently was known, to great fanfare by municipal officials, as the cleanest town in the Eastern Cape was indeed very sad,” an onlooker said.
In the aftermath a visitor from Johannesburg said, “I have become ‘Unproudly South African‘ today,” pointing to a pile of broken liquor bottles next to the helipad behind Guido‘s.
A clean-up by Coast Care and municipal workers commenced in mid-afternoon on January 2.
In contrast, reports from Kenton-on-Sea tell a different story even though about 7000 revellers were reported to have descended on the beaches there.
An initiative started three years ago the Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers Association (Kosra), the “Keep the Beach Clean of Glass” campaign, was implemented very successfully this year, according to the chairman of Kosra, Doug Walters.
“We have a team of cleaners on the beach among the revellers who request that empty bottles be placed in bags which they carry with them. The team was also supported by a person with a loud-hailer and hardly any broken glass was deposited on our beaches,” Walters said.
Skips were on hand to dispose of the filled bags.
The Ndlambe municipality also provided a number of Porta- loos but more would have been welcomed, said Walters.
The breaking of bottles in parking lots still remains a problem, he added. - HENNIE MARAIS
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Thousands of people will
Submitted by Mzukisi on Fri, 08/01/2010 - 15:01.
Thousands of people will continue to come to the beach, as they have been doing for years. The notion of using police force only to clamp down on thousands of beach goers on Jan 1 will not yield the required results. Other clever ideas will have to be found to reduce excessive litter, and especially bottles in the beach. One problematic area, for example was that liquor was sold at the beach in bottles.
When people are in a happy mood, especially in SA, and are gathered in large numbers, they generally drink liquor. Go to music festivals, rugby/cricket matches etc you will notice this culture.
Of course there were not enough toilets, bring mobile toilets. In fact this is a business opportunity. The municipality can also be proactive enough to organize parking bays. Beer may be sold in paper/plastic pints.
Rather than people complaining about litter, and rowdy behaviour of beach goers, maybe we should think of ways of managing large crowds, because next year they coming again!
You totally miss the point
Submitted by Jon Houzet on Fri, 08/01/2010 - 15:47.
That thousands of people come to the beach on New Year is not the issue, it is their associated behaviour - if they will enjoy themselves peacefully or make the day miserable for other holidaymakers. No one is denying anyone's right to go to the beach on New Year's Day. What other locals and holidaymakers object to is people flagrantly drinking in public - which is illegal, public drunkenness, urinating and defecating in the bush and dunes, loud noise and raucous behaviour, and destroying private property, as happened at Guido's.
The police are obligated to uphold the law 365 days a year. The constitution is not suspended for one day simply because crowds of people cannot behave themselves. We only need to look at Cape Town's example to see how possible it is for relatively few police and municipal officials to enforce law and order on the beaches and public places over the festive season. The police need to have the instruction and will to do it, and the public should know there are severe consequences for resisting police who are trying to enforce the law. If it takes arresting troublemakers, then they must do it, till people get the message.
It was also illegal to sell liquor at the beach - whoever was doing that should have been arrested as they had no licence to do it. It doesn't matter if the liquor comes in bottles or plastic cups, it is still illegal and people still get drunk and disorderly.
In addition to the above, the municipality should have planned for the numbers attending and provided port-a-potties in parking areas, as well as controlled access to the beach, by limiting the number of vehicles allowed to park along Beach Road and West Beach Drive. It was impossible to try get through the traffic along those roads that day. If there was an emergency it could have ended in tragedy.
The problem is that masses of people behaved selfishly and without consideration for the rest of the community.
Seriously, even if you were drinking alcohol, albeit illegally, how hard was it to walk over to the rubbish bin and toss in your empties? But no, people just left them on the grass, in the road, on the beach, or tossed them into the bushes or river. That's disgusting behaviour and should not be tolerated. Littering is also illegal, by the way, but again there is little will to police this crime.
