eThekwini municipality slammed for wishing Cape Town ‘speedy recovery’ after beach closures

Durban residents are fuming over an eThekwini municipality social media post wishing Cape Town a “speedy recovery” after sewage spills forced the closure of two beaches.

The city of Cape Town announced the temporary closure of a section of Strand Beach on the False Bay coast and at Small Bay in Blaauwberg as a “precautionary measure” on Sunday.

It attributed the closures to sewage spills which it said were under investigation.

Nkosenhle Madlala, chair of eThekwini’s governance and human capital committee who is also acting mayor, wished Cape Town a “speedy recovery” on the city’s Facebook page.

“We wish our colleagues in Cape Town well as they battle sewer spillages at some of their beaches.

“Running a metro is a complex task fraught with many challenges, even if you have been spared from the devastating floods experienced in April last year. We wish them a speedy recovery.”

Several Durban residents lashed out at the city, with some saying it needs to “focus on its own backyard”.

The city has for months been battling with high E. coli levels at many of its beaches as a result of failing infrastructure, which it attributed to damage caused by the floods in April last year.

In response to the post a resident said: “That’s a sarcastic post from the honourable. Exposing the bad situation from elsewhere doesn’t make your own failures right.  eThekwini can do better both in governance and infrastructural maintenance.”

Another wished eThekwini a “speedy recovery as well”.

“Perhaps focus on your own backyard instead of playing cheap politics,” said a resident.

“Shame, what a joke statement being issued by eThekwini municipality. Basically, it shows the calibre of poor leadership we have in our metro. We are in trouble here,” said another resident.

“This is a classic. Trying to highlight other metros’ problems to raise your own status. This is how immature people argue. How low can you go? Rather report how quickly they fix their problems. How can you write such a message when Durban sewer infrastructure is in a mess. Focus on sorting out Durban and leave Cape Town to the relevant people,” suggested one resident.

The municipality defended itself, saying: “As metros we feel the pain when another faces these kinds of challenges. Hence, we pray Cape Town recovers speedily.”

TimesLIVE