Durban - Rough seas caused extensive damage along the Durban beachfront this weekend, leaving piles of beach sand on pavements and in shop entrances.
With tides still high, no swimming was allowed at Durban beaches on Sunday.
In an attempt to clear the beachfront, the city’s beach cleaning staff and lifeguards had a busy weekend, removing uprooted thatched umbrellas which had been dislodged by heavy winds and rain.
The head of the municipality’s Parks, Recreation and Culture unit Thembinkosi Ngcobo said they were aware of the damage and were looking into it.
Ngcobo said there was always damage on the beachfront during the rainy season.
“The sand moves and the infrastructure around the beachfront is always left damaged,” he said.
According to Ngcobo, the clean-up operation would take some time as a lot of rubbish from the ocean was washed on to the shore.
“Just to clean the rubbish and put the sand back in place will take about two weeks, before we can start doing any repairs on the infrastructure,” he said.
“
We have stopped any swimming, but we are going to ensure that all the repairs are done before the festive season begins as we cannot risk having it closed during that period,” he said.
Tides wiped out sand artists’ work in about 15 minutes.
People flocked to the beach after last week’s stormy weather, but were again disappointed as they could not swim.
It was tricky for cyclists to navigate sand on the pavement.
The rough waves were still reaching up to the pavement on Sunday and cleaners eventually gave up in their attempts to push the sand back on to the shore.
Last week, the KZN Sharks Board announced that most beaches would remain closed until conditions improved.
Beaches in the KwaDukuza municipality were also closed.
The eThekwini municipality closed its beaches last Thursday and the shark nets were lifted on Sunday. The beaches are expected to open on Monday or on Tuesday, depending on the weather.
The Mercury