As Durban beachfront business owners count the cost of a devastating spring tide wave surge – expected to run into the millions – a treasure hunter is searching for pay dirt in tons of displaced beach sand.
Louis Fourie‚ who prefers the moniker Stompie‚ said his silver lining to this calamity would hopefully be gold.
Beachfront infrastructure was badly damaged when large swells pounded the promenade on Sunday. Many residents said it resembled a "mini-tsunami".
The city completed a R200-million upgrade of the beachfront in 2010.
In the aftermath on Monday‚ Fourie was walking the beaches of the promenade‚ deftly moving the magnetic search coil of his metal detector over the sand. “The sand on the beach has been churned up. When it is like this you tend to find rings. But so far there is nothing today besides one crappy ring that isn’t worth much‚” he said.
All he had to show for his morning in the sun was nearly R160 is loose change.
“I make my living this way… this is my life. I tell you in the last 20 years I have found so many rings‚” he added.
But for beachfront sculptor Skhumbuzo Ngcobo‚ who has eked out a living from the shaping the sand for nearly 10 years‚ the high seas wiped out hours of work and his earning potential.
“The waves came and [destroyed] everything here. All my sculptures were broken and now I have to start again‚” he said‚ as he smoothed the back of a sand rhino.
“I stay in a shelter and I need R40 for my bed/ I am not sure when I am going to get money to eat‚” he said.
For restaurant owner Yaseen Amod and many other business owners in the North Beach area‚ it was a day of counting costs as he stood in his store amid broken glass and sand.
“We were standing watching the waves and it just crashed over the barrier and we all turned to run but it was too late. We got swept in with the current and we got swept through the store to the back of the shop‚” he said.
The surging waters had pushed wooden benches through the glass store front.
“We are putting up boards in case the tide rises again. There is damage her in the millions from our computer system to our kitchen‚ nothing is working‚” he said.
In a statement‚ the eThekwini Municipality as well as the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) department's disaster management team‚ who assessed the damage on Monday morning‚ said that cost of repairs had yet to be calculated.
“The costs... will be calculated as soon as assessments have been completed. Some sections of piers and promenade remain closed to the public due to unsafe conditions. We are grateful that the worst is over; however‚ we will continue to monitor the situation.
“We urge communities to heed the advice that at this point they must restrain themselves from visiting the beaches until it is safer to do so‚” said Acting MEC for Cogta Bongi Sithole-Moloi.
- TMG Digital/The Times
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