DURBAN - THE Ballito Pro surfing event has been postponed to early December due to the rise in Covid-19 infections.
Ballito Pro, the world’s longest running professional surfing event, was originally scheduled to take place next month.
The prestigious event brings thousands of people to the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast town, boosting the economy through tourism.
The organisers KwaDukuza Municipality, the World Surf League and Surfing South Africa, said they had decided to exercise caution after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday that the country was moving to lockdown level 2.
They said postponing the event would prevent the possibility of creating a “super spreader” situation.
Event organiser Collette Bundy also sought to ease public concerns that the event may be moved to another province.
“It’s not going anywhere. We just postponed it out of the high risk period of the third wave which KZN might get in July,” she said.
Bundy said they had looked at other dates and December was a perfect fit. She said the event would probably be in the first week of December when the country was expected to have passed the third wave.
Robin De Kock, general manager of Surfing South Africa said: “We acknowledge that this decision has been taken with the safety of the public and the participants in mind. We look forward to being part of the programme later this year.”
World Surf League Africa operations manager Colin Fitch also shared the same sentiment and said they were in support of the postponement of the event.
KwaDukuza Municipality mayor Dolly Govender, said they had consulted with various partners and taking into account the third wave predictions by experts.
Govender said the postponement had been done as part of responsible and responsive governance, which puts public health first.
“The new dates will be announced after we have surpassed the 3rd wave.”
THE MERCURY