2 Jan 2018, Durban: It was a fun filled New Year’s long weekend, the Durban beaches being the hive of activity as they were packed to capacity this past weekend.
The Municipality is happy to announce that it was an incident free long weekend as Law Enforcement Officers, Metro Police and the South African Police Services were out in full force to keep an eye on over 3 907 668 people who visited the stretch of beaches on the Ethekwini coastline from 29 December to 01 January 2018.
The Chairperson of the Festive Season Management Committee, Malcolm Canham said that even though there were large crowds, people were generally well behaved with no major incidents and drownings reported except for a few non-abiding members of public.
“The troublemakers were dealt with decisively and we issued over 860 warnings for drinking in public, fighting, illegal braais and bathing in restricted areas. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable on our beaches and we are clamping down such behaviour.
A further 161 people were charged for unlicensed vehicles and parking in prohibited areas including motorcycle lanes and disabled parking bays. The swift response of our law enforcement officers also resulted in the arrest of 8 people for cellphone and handbag theft, and some were caught with drugs in their possession,” said Canham.
A total of 33 rescues were carried out and 2 662 people received first aid treatment for different medical reasons. This includes 5 people who were sent to hospital for incidents comprising near-drowning, arm dislocation and ankle sprain.
The Municipality will like to urge parents to look after children when visiting the beach and make sure that they take the child to a Child Minder for tagging. The tag includes the name of the child and contact details of the parent.
Over 44 033 arm bands were issued to children coming to the beach. About 332 children were separated from their parents and 328 were re-united with their parents.
Four children were taken to the overnight facility and at present, three children are still in the custody of the Municipality’s Child Minders. Parents are requested to make contact urgently with officials to be reunited with their children. Proof of identity and relationship with the separated child is required.
The contact number for the overnight facility at the Claire Ellis Brown Pre-Primary School is: (031) 368 4119.
END – eThekwini Municipality
Source: http://news.searchsa.co.za/news/nearly-4-million-beach-goers-durban-new-year-wekend.html