THE City’s festive season management strategy was the topic of discussion at a combined business forum and tourism central area safety and justice meeting at the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
Speaking on behalf of the City, Malcolm Canham from eThekwini Municipality’s Disaster Management and Emergency Control Unit outlined the strategy for the busy holiday season at Durban’s beachfront.
He said the Municipality’s Festive Season Management Committee (FESMAC) had been established 13 years ago when representatives from the UIP, SAPS, Suncoast, uShaka and the Point Precinct got together to decide how best to manage the beach and inner city over the festive season, when the beaches were overcrowded and crime was rampant.
He said the plan was established to identify risk and a risk reduction strategy and concepts were established for the festive season.
“This year we will continue with the Park and Ride system as we did last year as feedback from the public was positive. There will be a circulatory bus movement launched from a central site to the venue and back. We have identified the Drive-In site in the central area and the old CBD circus site,” he said.
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Regarding keeping the beachfront clean, Canham said the municipality would be creating clusters or zones with each area being cleaned by different teams.
“We will also be looking at better ways to store litter and to establish better pick-up plans. South Beach UIP will be helping as they have a clean-up plan,” he said.
Another concept FESMAC will be implementing this year is a pop-up market type environment which will help regulate informal trading. He said daily accreditation will be done where traders will apply to trade in specific places such as the Pavilion site, Country Club lawns, the Drive-In site and Blue Lagoon lawns.
Canham said due to extraordinary crowd numbers on the beach at the festive season, there will be no major events at the beachfront.
“The switching on of the Christmas lights in the CBD will be on 18 December and the City will be combining resources with Suncoast to hold a fireworks display for new year’s eve,” he said.
Metro Police’s Snr Supt Parboo Sewpersad said Metro will be conducting patrols along the beachfront and at city hotspots over the festive season.
“We will have a joint operations centre set up during the festive season and a traffic management plan and parking management plan will be in place. We will be monitoring the beachfront via CCTV and in cases of congestion, roads will be closed to traffic until it eases,” said Sewpersad.
He said there will be a high police visibility along with private security companies and UIP security on the beachfront to keep visitors safe.
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