Life is a beach in Cape Town after the city retained pole position with the highest number of Blue Flag beaches in South Africa. Seven additional city beaches were awarded Blue Flag status yesterday at a ceremony hosted by Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom in Hermanus.The Blue Flag is an international award bestowed on beaches that excel in safety, amenities, cleanliness, environmental information and management.In South Africa, the programme is managed by the Wildlife and Environment Society of SA, under a Department of Environmental Affairs initiative.Nine beaches achieved full status for the 2015/2016 South African Blue Flag season, while 30 beaches were awarded pilot status.Forty-nine Blue Flag sites are in the Western Cape, 19 in KwaZulu-Natal and 16 in the Eastern Cape.Cape Town councillor Belinda Walker, responsible for community services and special projects, said seven of the city's beaches had been awarded full Blue Flag status.These include Bikini Beach, Mnandi Beach and Strandfontein Beach."This shows that the sustainable environmental management in place has succeeded in maintaining our coastal ecological integrity despite more than a million visitors to our beaches over the festive season," said Walker.Hanekom also launched the Blue Flag ambassadors programme, a partnership with the society, which will see local people employed to look after beaches."Local people will be employed on each of the beaches and in creating these jobs we will also retain the Blue Flag status and enhance the beaches as a tourist attraction," said Hanekom.However, Cosatu in the Western Cape said the awards were deceptive. Federation boss Tony Ehrenreich said the beaches that enjoyed the status were in "white areas" of the city."The beaches of Mnandi and Strandfontein are death traps with real dangers to swimmers," Ehrenreich said...