Kouga municipality seeks to overturn beach closures

The Kouga Local Municipality has joined the Garden Route District Municipality, the Great Brak River Business Forum, lobby group AfriForum and the DA in seeking to challenge government’s decision to close beaches across the Eastern Cape and Garden Route over the festive season due to Covid-19.

The Kouga Local Municipality has approached the the Eastern Cape High Court in an effort to have the decision overturned, which the DA has voiced its support for.

“The DA in the Eastern Cape is of the firm belief that the national government’s blanket closure of all Eastern Cape beaches has been imposed unjustly, and that it has already had a devastating impact on the province’s fragile tourism sector,” DA MP Andrew Whitfield said in a statement on Thursday.

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Government gazetted regulations under the Disaster Management Act on Tuesday that stated that all beaches in the Eastern Cape and Garden Route would be closed from 16 December 2020 to 3 January 2021.

However, beaches in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) will only be closed on the busiest days of the season, namely 16, 25, 26 and 31 December, as well as from 1 to 3 January, a decision Whitfield has described as “unfair”.

“It is also our view that the national government has not been fair, rational or consistent in its imposition of this regulation across the country, as evidenced by the lesser restrictions imposed on KZN.

“Further, the closure of our beaches goes against the scientific advice and recommendations made by medical experts and will be impossible to strictly enforce,” he said.

Whitfield reiterated that the closure of the beaches would be “devastating” to the region’s economy.

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“Tourism is one of Kouga’s, and the Eastern Cape’s, key economic sectors, especially over the busy summer festive season. The closure of beaches will have a devastating economic impact on the people of Kouga and the rest of the province , and we cannot stand by and allow our businesses, residents and visitors to suffer,” he added.

Whitfield further noted that there were concerns from the DA that the closure of beaches and parks would lead to people congregating at other venues.

He added that the DA and the Kouga municipality would take up the fight for the beaches to be reopened.

“We hope that success in our application will lead to all the provincial beaches being reopened. The DA in the Eastern Cape will fight to protect and uphold the rights of our citizens to live in a just and equal society and to pursue a life of freedom and dignity.

“We will take this fight to the courts to guarantee that there are still thriving coastal economies in this province, despite the national government’s irrational attempts to stifle them,” he concluded.

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