Stop the party! DA calls for urgent probe as dunes, vegetation destroyed ahead of beach festival

16 March 2022

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for an urgent municipal and provincial probe into the destruction of sand dunes, trees and associated vegetation to make way for a music festival taking place this weekend.

Photographic evidence gathered by the Durban North Ratepayers Association and DA Ward Councillor, Shontel De Boer, shows bulldozers clearly flattening protected dunes at the Beachwood region in Durban North. (view here, here and here)

Shockingly, further oversight at the proposed festival site show large stretches of dune having been levelled and trees cut down to make way for stages and party areas.

Further investigation by the DA has revealed that the eThekwini Parks Department and Metro Police initially authorised the event without any forethought to the potential environmental degradation.

South Africa’s coastal zones are highly regulated, with both the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) and Integrated Coastal Management Act setting strict conditions on any alteration or development in sensitive dune areas. Contravention of the Acts carries penalties of up to a R5 million fine and 10 years’ imprisonment.

Given the constant threat of coastal degradation and pollution, it is abhorrent that the municipality and event organisers would dare allow bulldozers onto public beaches for their own profit.

Any work on or around sand dunes usually triggers an entire Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process that could take years.

How some staff in eThekwini Municipality could contemplate granting event permission beggars belief and must form part of the investigations by KZN’s Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA).

The DA expects MEC Ravi Pillay and his Department to treat this matter with the urgency and seriousness it deserves. Failure to do so will set a very dangerous precedent, one which our environment can ill-afford.

Issued by Heinz de Boer, DA KZN Spokesperson on EDTEA, 16 March 2022