Zinkwazi lifeguard tower is an eyesore
Upgrade to tower should have been completed three months ago.
Driving through Zinkwazi, it feels as if one is driving through a construction site, rather than a picturesque beach town.
Roads are strewn with potholes and ditches from unfinished pipe laying work, water pipes are sticking out of the ground and the pavements are full of uncollected garden refuse.
The biggest eyesore for Zinkwazi residents and tourists however is the abandoned lifeguard tower construction on the main beach.
Zinkwazi resident, Cliff Hatt is one of the many upset residents who cannot watch the town he loves lose its pride and beauty, because of poor service delivery.
“There are roughly 400 houses in Zinkwazi and only about 30% of them are permanently occupied. This means KDM only needs to look after 30% of the refuse and other services, yet not even that is achieved,” he said.
Hatt stated that the town has about 2 000 residents, which grows to between 8 000 and 10 000 during the Christmas holidays.
“Zinkwazi relies on tourists, but everyone who comes to Zinkwazi main beach is greeted with a messy construction site, which creates a bad impression,” he said.
The relatively small parking area at main beach is deprived of almost 20% of its parking bays, because of a shipping container that belongs to the contractor of the lifeguard tower.
“The container is surrounded by building material, netting, broken fencing and building rubble. We have sent various requests during the December holidays to have the mess cleaned up, but it has fallen on deaf ears,” said Hatt.
The lifeguard tower work started about 18 months ago, but beach manager Frikkie Smit said no one has worked on it since December 20, 2014.
“The toilets in the tower are a mess and the sewage pumps do not work. There is also no running water in the bathrooms,” said Smit.
“The tower has no ceiling, so every time it rains the club, that is linked to the lifeguard building, is flooded. I covered the building with tarpaulin to try keep the water out.”
The club’s bar manager, Jason Bailey is desperate for the tower to be completed, because his business is suffering.
“We have lost about R30 000 in fridges, sound systems and equipment because of the water leaking into the bar,” said Bailey.
“Our storeroom roof cracked, because of the building, which again means water leaks through the cracks and onto electrical plugs, which is worrying,”
He added that all the beach goers are using the club’s toilets because of the terrible state of the lifeguard tower toilets.
“I have reported this problem numerous times to the municipality, but nothing has happened.
“We do not know who the contractors are, all we know is that our beach was always so beautiful and now it is just an eyesore,” said Bailey.
Zinkwazi beach visitors are disgusted by the state of the lifeguard tower and the parking lot.
“The tower is a disgrace and the ablution facilities are smelly and unpleasant,” said holidaymaker Angus Braithwaite.
Zinkwazi councillor James van Whye said the previous contractor, Afikakonke Trading, experienced financial problems and that the contractor has been dismissed.
“The job should have been completed three months ago, which did not happen. We were not happy with the contractor, but a new contractor has now been appointed and the work should be completed by next month,” said Van Whye.
He said the contractor would have only been paid for the completed work, not the full amount of roughly R1,5 million.
“Almost 90% of the work is done, just the ceiling needs to be done and few other snags need to be sorted out,” he said.
The appointed consulting engineers, Dartingo Consulting Engineers, did not want to comment.
