EDITOR: I read this release over and over again and could not see any mention of the Red Location Museum – maybe YOU can see it and prove me to be a bit of a nincompoop!
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has spent more than R1-million fixing and maintaining recreational facilities which were vandalised by vagrants and thugs during the harder National Lockdown.
The City used the temporary closure of beaches with officials working around the clock to fix the damage caused, which included broken doors, broken ceilings, stolen fences, damaged roofs, taps, toilet infrastructure, and burglar gates, among other damages.
Mayoral Committee Member for Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Cllr Helga van Staaden visited King’s Beach on Monday, 1 February 2021, to inspect the completed work on site which will ensure that residents and visitors enjoy their time at the City’s beaches once the beaches are reopened.
During the oversight visit, MMC Van Staaden said it was vital to fix the damage as the City wanted to keep good standards in all its beaches as that feeds into economic development and tourism attraction.
“We are saddened that we had to redo work that was already done due to criminals. We have managed to replace damaged roofs, taps, toilet infrastructure, burglar gates and fencing among other things. We did consult with our Safety and Security Directorate and they advised on the kind of stronger security we needed to erect now.”
We have done work in Wells Estate Beach where we replaced the fence which was stolen and done some general maintenance work. We spent about R900,000 there. We have done a lot of work in King’s Beach where vagrants and thieves damaged our facilities badly last year. “We have spent about R400,000 and we are expecting the expenses to go up as more work needs to be done. We need to fix the damage if we want to keep the Blue Flag status of King’s Beach,” said MMC van Staaden.
One building has since been allocated for the use of Safety and Security Directorate, to enhance the upgraded security measures in an effort to reduce vandalism incidents.
“We have had to remove showers in King’s Beach as thieves damaged them. We have opted to use more plastic use as they are really after copper and we will be closing many of the open windows in addition to more security measures which we will not divulge publicly.
“We are calling on all residents to take responsibility and actually report these incidents. The Mayor has started a new committee that will tackle vandalism head on and we want residents to work with us as we root out this cancer in our society,” she added.
NMB Communications
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