Nelson Mandela Bay's boozy beach headache

Boozy beachgoers are proving to be a real headache for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

However, city officials say that while they cannot stop people from drinking on the beaches, it will not stop them from policing it.

This, as they struggle to find a solution to the festive season drinking frenzy along Marine Drive and Wells Estate beach.

The metro appears to have relaxed its stance two years after former mayor Athol Trollip announced a total ban on alcohol at the city’s beaches, saying that it might have no alternative but to tolerate drinking at some of the beaches.

But law enforcement would have to step in if anyone was actually caught drinking, the city warned.

The municipality’s acting executive director of sports, recreation, arts and culture, Kithi Ngesi, said at a portfolio committee meeting on Friday that the city was battling to curb drinking along the beaches, particularly during the peak summer season.

“We have had discussions to say we know it is wrong to drink in that area, but for the lack of us, as a city, providing a space to drink, perhaps there is nothing we can do but to tolerate drinking at Marine Drive during peak season,” she said.

“But while we allow people to drink in that area, we also have law enforcement which will control drinking in the area.”

She said Kings Beach used to be a “drinking” beach, but the city never provided an alternative when alcohol was banned on the beach. “What we have seen is that when drinking was stopped, people had nowhere else to drink.”

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