Cape Town - Renovations to the iconic colourful beach huts situated on Cape Town’s Muizenberg beach have officially begun.
The huts, which have been in a sad state of disrepair for years, are a prominent feature on the False Bay coastline and are the second most photographed attraction in Cape Town after Table Mountain.
In September, a Facebook page was started by members of the Muizenberg community called “Save Our Beach Huts”, which has gained support from not just people in South Africa, but also those from abroad who have offered to assist in various ways to restore the iconic beach huts to their former glory.
According to the website Love Cape Town, many of the huts fell into disrepair in recent years and a threat to remove the huts in 2017 sparked a public outcry.
“The Nutec boards were painted off-site. They are white because of the undercoat and primer. They will be painted in their appropriate colours tomorrow (Thursday),” according to the Facebook page.
In an interview with Cape Town radio station KFM on Tuesday, local resident Angela Gorman said she decided to rally the community to restore the dilapidated beach huts through a social media campaign.
“The project started eight weeks ago. We've just started restoring now. It’s a campaign that we started on Facebook and Instagram to infuse people and to get them excited about the fact that we ourselves can do it,” Gorman said in her interview with KFM’s Tracey Lange.
According to Gorman, they can restore all 31 beach huts if everyone pulls together and offer their time, offer their expertise if they're a company, or donate timber and paint. She added that it has been the most incredible little journey in Muizenberg.
Meanwhile, in August, several multicoloured beach huts at St James beach, on Cape Town's False Bay coastline, went up in flames.
According to social media reports, law enforcement officers found three of the iconic St James Beach beach huts alight. The fire was extinguished by the fire department, but three huts were gutted and two damaged partially.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
African News Agency (ANA)