Watch: two massive tankers hauled from Durban’s beaches as clean up begins

Durban - An army of volunteers and a salvage team used the lull between Monday night’s storm and this weekend’s expected rains to clear Durban’s beaches of litter, ranging from plastic to tankers that had flowed down the Mgeni River and beached.

Janet Simpkins, of the Adopt a River NGO, said about a ton of recyclable plastic a day had been separated from other debris and carted off to be recycled.

Shaun Gordini operates the crane while Morne Venter guides one of the tankers washed up on Blue Lagoon Beach as it is hoisted on to the back of a truck. Picture: Duncan Guy

“We have had some amazing volunteers and we’ve really made a dent in our little stretch here,” she said from her base camp near Blue Lagoon.

“And we’ve started moving further south, which is a good thing. It means that a lot of the waste has been removed.

“And we’ll just continue as long as the weather allows and we’ll just move it off the beach.”

Salvagers cut the tanker that washed up on Thekwini Beach before removing it. Picture: Duncan Guy

Crowds gathered to watch Shaun Gordini and his salvage team remove two tankers. One was set in a frame that would have made it fit on transport like a container, and was on the beach close to the pier at Blue Lagoon. The other, on a trailer with wheels, was on Thekwini Beach.

Jonathan Dlamini took a break from clearing Blue Lagoon beach by kicking a ball he found among the debris. Picture: Duncan Guy

Gordini, the owner of Gordini Towing in New Germany, described it as “an unusual job”.

“The sand was a problem. We were held back by the sand. Normally we would use two trucks for something like this but they wouldn’t let us have two trucks here,” he said at the Blue Lagoon job.

As dark clouds loom over Durban, (from front) Gabriel Attwood, Kelly Gasson, Luke Lerothooi and Gillian Attwood join clean-up operations on the beachfront near Blue Lagoon. Picture: Shelley Kjonstad/African News Agency (ANA)

Two trucks with cranes and winches were involved in the second operation where his team cut the tanker in two with blow torches to take them out, one by one.

Back among the litter-collecting volunteers, Milisha Bakool and Isabella Mendes were saddened to see so many kids’ toys.

Keith Towney said he was surprised there was a population explosion in South Africa.

“My goodness there are a lot of condoms here. And an amazing amount of deodorants. It’s just very sad. Now the tide’s coming in and it’s just going to wash it all straight back out to sea,” he said on Thursday afternoon.