Buffalo City Municipality is on the ball with the cleaning of East London’s many beaches after a busy festive season.
According to BCM there are 54 cleaners working to clean the city’s beaches.
When the Daily Dispatch visited Eastern Beach yesterday morning BCM workers were already hard at work, having started at 6am, combing over sand and grass with rakes to collect trash.
The beach was already very busy, with many beachgoers continuing the festive season party. As a result this beach was far dirtier than the other, less busy beaches.
Despite the presence of cleaners there were still bottles, paper and plastic packets strewn across the beach and its surrounds.
Davlyn Rothnick Botha, a former prisoner, who proudly calls himself a reformed citizen, was collecting cans in order to recycle them.
“This is hard work. The young guys would rather steal but I don’t do that stuff anymore. I would rather work hard. It is tough and tiring because we have to walk all over to collect these cans. We are paid R6 per a kg,” said Botha.
Nahoon beach, in stark contrast to Eastern Beach, was far less busy and as, a result, the beach was extremely clean. A pile of refuse bags just off the beach indicated that BCM had already cleaned the area.
Innocent Zungu, a sand sculptor from St Lucia, was sculpting what he said would eventually be the Big 5.
“It took me three hours to do the rhino. I’m now busy with the elephant. We were at Eastern Beach in Quigney but the people there were a bit violent because they were drunk, so we came here,” said Zungu.
There were cleaners at Gonubie beach, which was virtually spotless when the Daily Dispatch arrived.
They could be seen picking up the last remaining bottles left by New Year party revelers. Piles of refuse bags and a full skip in the parking lot once again indicated that they had been hard at work.
Samkelo Ngwenya, BCM spokesman, said: “Presently we are managing the cleaning, safety and influx in the areas, which include the public beaches and associated tidal pools, public swimming beaches, picnic areas and related public open spaces, including the Orient Beach and Waterworld pay complex.”
He said BCM had enjoyed a fairly incident-free, well-managed festive season regarding cleaning, safety and security. All the major events held in the city ran smoothly, and there were no major incidents.
“Since the season is far from over, we continue to urge people to adhere to the law, swim within designated areas, report crime and assist our members whenever incidents arise.
“In terms of cleaning, we are undertaking repairs and maintenance concurrently, as we have to get the beachfront ready for upcoming events like the Ironman and, of course, we are expecting a busy weekend with the ANC national event coming up on January 13,” he said.
Massive clean-up of EL beaches
According to BCM there are 54 cleaners working to clean the city’s beaches.
When the Daily Dispatch visited Eastern Beach yesterday morning BCM workers were already hard at work, having started at 6am, combing over sand and grass with rakes to collect trash.
The beach was already very busy, with many beachgoers continuing the festive season party. As a result this beach was far dirtier than the other, less busy beaches.
Despite the presence of cleaners there were still bottles, paper and plastic packets strewn across the beach and its surrounds.
Davlyn Rothnick Botha, a former prisoner, who proudly calls himself a reformed citizen, was collecting cans in order to recycle them.
“This is hard work. The young guys would rather steal but I don’t do that stuff anymore. I would rather work hard. It is tough and tiring because we have to walk all over to collect these cans. We are paid R6 per a kg,” said Botha.
Nahoon beach, in stark contrast to Eastern Beach, was far less busy and as, a result, the beach was extremely clean. A pile of refuse bags just off the beach indicated that BCM had already cleaned the area.
Innocent Zungu, a sand sculptor from St Lucia, was sculpting what he said would eventually be the Big 5.
“It took me three hours to do the rhino. I’m now busy with the elephant. We were at Eastern Beach in Quigney but the people there were a bit violent because they were drunk, so we came here,” said Zungu.
There were cleaners at Gonubie beach, which was virtually spotless when the Daily Dispatch arrived.
They could be seen picking up the last remaining bottles left by New Year party revelers. Piles of refuse bags and a full skip in the parking lot once again indicated that they had been hard at work.
Samkelo Ngwenya, BCM spokesman, said: “Presently we are managing the cleaning, safety and influx in the areas, which include the public beaches and associated tidal pools, public swimming beaches, picnic areas and related public open spaces, including the Orient Beach and Waterworld pay complex.”
He said BCM had enjoyed a fairly incident-free, well-managed festive season regarding cleaning, safety and security. All the major events held in the city ran smoothly, and there were no major incidents.
“Since the season is far from over, we continue to urge people to adhere to the law, swim within designated areas, report crime and assist our members whenever incidents arise.
“In terms of cleaning, we are undertaking repairs and maintenance concurrently, as we have to get the beachfront ready for upcoming events like the Ironman and, of course, we are expecting a busy weekend with the ANC national event coming up on January 13,” he said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos