Staff Reporter
Durban temporarily closed four popular bathing beaches on Thursday after detecting pollution, as the city braces for peak festive-season crowds.
The eThekwini Municipality said it had shut Blue Lagoon, eThekwini Beach, Country Club Beach and Battery Beach as a precautionary measure after “the detection of pollution”.
It did not specify what the pollution was.
A senior management team had been appointed to trace the source and implement mitigation. The beaches will remain closed pending further testing, it said.
The city said 19 other beaches remained open, with lifeguards on duty and a 2,000-strong Metro Police deployment working with national police to ensure a safe festive season.
Durban’s beachfront is a major drawcard in December. Mayor Cyril Xaba said last week the city expected about 1.3 million visitors over the summer period, generating R341 million in direct spending and an R845 million contribution to GDP.
The closures come amid intensifying political and legal scrutiny over sewage and stormwater pollution along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
Also on Thursday, the Pietermaritzburg High Court ordered eThekwini to take urgent steps to address a long-running sewage crisis that has repeatedly affected rivers and beaches.
The city was ordered to publish weekly E. coli readings for all public beaches and accelerate repairs to sewer infrastructure.
In recent weeks, the municipality has tried to reassure residents and tourists that conditions have improved.
On 9 December, Xaba said water quality tests confirmed all 23 of Durban’s designated bathing beaches were open and safe for swimming, and condemned what he called “smear campaigns” and misinformation about beach water results.
“Let me state categorically: we are fully transparent with our beach water results, which we publish regularly on our website. We also welcome collaboration with independent laboratories for joint testing to verify and compare results,” he said at the time.
The Democratic Alliance DA has disputed the city’s assurances, saying that independent testing and some municipal sampling indicated elevated bacteria levels at a number of beaches. It accused the city of putting its tourism image ahead of public health.
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