“KwaZulu-Natal beaches secure and ready for 2010”
Welcome all to this media briefing �" showcasing the readiness of KwaZulu-Natal beaches to host scores and scores of visitors who will descend on our beaches for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World CupTM.
Beach tourism is an integral and most accessible form of leisure that our province has to offer. In any given year, our beaches attract more than two million people during the festive season. With the province of KwaZulu-Natal, in the form of the Ethekwini Municipality, playing host to some of the most exciting games of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, we can expect this number to increase exponentially.
This is evidenced by the fact that in 2008, 52 percent of all the people who visited our province also took some time off to enjoy the beauty of our beaches while in 2009, 64 percent of all the people who spent their holiday in our province also visited our beaches. This is because of the simple reason that our beaches are one of the safest and cleanest in the world. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup looming on the horizon, there is no doubt that these numbers will increase.
This is more so if one takes into account the fact that schools would be closed during the World Cup.
It is because of this reason that, our government took a well-considered decision to implement practical and long term measures to ensure that our beaches are more than up to the task of providing a safe, enjoyable and unforgettable experience, particularly during the World Cup. The task to ensure the safety of bathers on our beaches is led by one of our public entities and world leader in beach safety, the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board.
The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB) has shown us this morning that it is fully prepared to carry out its mandate to safeguard bathers against shark attacks. Every morning officials from the Sharks Board visit our nets to service them and ensure that they are always in good condition to safeguard the lives of our bathers and prevent shark attacks.
To this end, the KZNSB has shark safety gear at 38 beaches along the province’s coastline from Richards Bay in the north to Port Edward near the Eastern Cape border. The beaches along the Hibiscus Coast have a combination of shark nets and drum-lines to protect the bathing areas, while Durban and the north coast continue to have nets only at this stage.
Not only is KwaZulu-Natal the only province in our country which has this technology to protect our bathers from shark attacks, but over the years we have been improving and getting better and better. As a result of the measures we have put in place to protect bathers from shark attacks, our province has not had a single shark attack incident over the past five decades. This shows that our government views the issue of the safety of bathers in a very serious light.
As said earlier, we are aware that our beaches will be extremely busy during the World Cup. The Ethekwini Municipality, which is our host city, will, for example, host its fan park on the North Beach. Judging from the international experience on fan parks, we can expect lots and lots of soccer lovers to spend most of their leisure time on the beaches in between the games.
In view of the expected increase of beach visitors during the World Cup, we have taken extraordinary measures to ensure their safety. Over and above meshing the nets once a day, we will dispatch Sharks Board officials to patrol our beaches and be on standby to constantly ensure beach safety. We will do this because we are mindful of the fact that a soccer games takes 90 minutes at most and that perhaps the bulk of our visitors’ time will be spent on our beaches.
This means that given the proximity of the Moses Mabhida Stadium and the fan park and the beaches, there will be a massive increase of fans who want to enjoy the splendour of our beaches. This scale-up in our operations is not only confined to the World Cup period. Despite the resources constraint, we have committed ourselves to scaling up our operations in ensuring bather safety during all major holidays, including the Easter holidays, school vacations and when we host other major sporting events.
However, having said this, we also want to stress the fact that in ensuring the safety of the bathers, we will also make sure that we take due care of environmental issues. As we have done over the years, we will ensure that all live animals caught in the nets are released. It has always been our guiding philosophy as the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board that while it is important that we should protect bathers from Shark attacks, however, we should not do this in a manner that has an adverse and negative effect on the environment.
We have always been mindful of the fact that the natural resources that we have been entrusted with should be taken care of in order to ensure that they don’t only benefit us but also benefit future generations. Indeed the sustainability of our competitive edge when it comes to tourism hinges directly on how we take care of our natural resources while maximising their ability to attract tourists.
As most of you are aware, the Sharks Board has a fleet of ski boats, open-decked boats with outboard motors, which are used to carry out our work. However, because of the expected increase of visitors during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we have taken a decision to organise another boat, in addition to an existing tour boat, in order to ensure that more and more of our people are able to accompany our teams in the early morning adventure out to sea to check on the nets.
As the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, we want to stress the fact that we are ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Our ducks are now in a row. However, we would like to make an appeal to our communities to continue to work with us to ensure that our beaches are safe. This is not a responsibility that can only be shouldered by government.
All of us in our individual capacity and all stakeholders in our province have a role to play. The 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup offers us a golden opportunity to showcase the natural beauty of our country. Critically, it enables us to up the ante in securing the safety of our bathers which will ultimately ensure that we can compete with the world’s best beaches on an equal footing. This can only mean the improvement of our competitive edge against other international tourist destinations. Pointedly, we must stress that the beach safety plan that we are unveiling today complements the broader beach safety strategy which involves life guards, national sea rescue, police and tourist ambassadors. It must also be stressed that ultimately beach safety is the responsibility of each and every individual.
Our beaches are a jewel in the glittering crown of our province. Our people, including our visitors, are critical for the sustained growth and development of our province and our country. It is therefore critical that we should exploit their economic benefit while ensuring the safety of all those who visit them.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
18 March 2010
Source: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government (http://www.kznded.gov.za/)
