Beach toilets a stinky mess
Beach ablution facilities look pretty from the outside, but are disgusting on the inside.
Filthy and stinking beach toilets, smeared with faeces and covered with offensive graffiti, left visitors to Ballito disillusioned with the town as a holiday destination.
“We have been visiting Ballito for about 15 years, and never was it such a shame; many of the mechanisms do not work, it stinks and the walls are painted with what I do not even want to describe,” said Jannie Boshoff from the North West province, one of the many visitors who complained to the Courier.
Guesthouse owner Herbie Ellison said he has sent numerous emails to ward councillor Colin Marsh during the course of last year before Easter, the Mr Price Pro and Christmas about the state of the beach toilets.
“As an ex-military man I thought I had seen the worst toilets but this is much worse,” said Ellison.
He said residents, who pay exorbitant taxes, go for walks on the promenade and are inconvenienced because they cannot use the ablution facilities.
He said he was embarrassed to encourage his South African and first world foreign guests to go to Willard Beach.
“If I were the ward councillor I would be down at the beach doing the cleaning up myself,” said Ellison.
Ward councillor Colin Marsh laid the blame for the poor conditions firmly at the door of the municipal manager, Nhlanhla Mdakane.
Mdakane has lost control over his departments, says Marsh.
“The municipal services system is top heavy and there is no accountability because the municipal manager is not doing his job,” said Marsh.
Marsh handed over a copy of one of Ellison’s urgent emails to Mdakane at a council meeting on March 11, 2014 in which Ellison highlighted the stench and offensive graffiti in the men’s toilets at Willard Beach.
Despite provision having been made in the 2014/2015 municipal budget for upgrading the Ballito beach toilets and tourism being the town’s primary source of income, no upgrades were done before the festive season.
Holiday makers had to endure unhygienic conditions including the nauseating stench of urine and offensive graffiti on the walls alongside smears of human faeces inside toilet cubicles.
Marsh said the system for municipal services is complicated and does not work.
He described the system as follows: the beach manager and parks and garden services fall under municipal services and are responsible for cleaning and tidying up.
Civils are tasked with maintenance and repairs, while supply chain management is supposed to send out tenders for supplies and labour after a renovation or repairs plan has been drawn up and approved.
The beach supervisor receives complaints and sends job cards to civils who has to send someone to fix the problem.
“Without a competent municipal manager there is no accountability within the system and nothing gets done. Getting something fixed requires work and nobody wants to work. Productivity and enforcement do not exist and people are being overpaid for jobs they do not do properly. The lowest paying job within the KwaDukuza municipality is cleaning and pays R4 700 a month. Politics have paralyzed the ward committees,” said Marsh.
Marsh says an Urban Improvement Programme (UIP) in Ballito will make things a lot better for residents and visitors.
“A UIP gives the people the authority to do what the municipality is not doing and will be a Godsend to Ballito.”
He used Umhlanga as an example of people paying for a better suburb, better service delivery, better business, and decreased property devaluation.
“A UIP will enable us to raise the bar and have things like potholes, beach facilities and street lights fixed properly and adequately.”
In a press release the KwaDukuza municipality said the beach facilities are maintained on a regular basis and that one person is employed to clean the beach toilets.
“It is also the public’s responsibility to consider hygiene and keep the toilets clean as they use them.”
