South Africa’s beaches still packed with holidaymakers

New Year’s Day celebrations are in full swing, especially at coastal resorts where many residents and holidaymakers are flocking to the beaches.

In Durban, people are making the way to the beach after bringing in the new year at various hotspots around the city.

Ethekwini Metro Police Spokesperson, Parboo Sewpersadh, has cautioned them to abide by the law.

“The Metro Police have their full deployment in place all alongside the beachfront along all the Hotspots in the party areas. And we had an incident-free evening. Although it was incident-free, we want people to remain cautious. No drinking and driving no texting and driving, respect the law. They park, and drive facilities along the beachfront will be in place today. Already there is a mass influx of people already at the beachfront.”

Meanwhile, child safety is being prioritised by authorities as thousands of people flock to beaches in Cape Town.

Law enforcement agencies are out in full force. Western Cape Community Safety Minister, Alan Winde, has called on parents to be part of the Identikidz project.

Winde visited Mnandi beach near Mitchell’s Plain on Tuesday and has encouraged parents to have their children tagged. Once tagged with an armband it will contain the child and family’s information.

The system appears to be working well as many parents can be seen taking part .

Winde says there have been a few incidents on Tuesday morning with children going walk about unsupervised.

Thousands flock to beaches

The City of Cape Town says an estimated 40 000 people visited Muizenberg Beach. Revellers also soaked up the sun at Clifton’s Fourth Beach – which had been the scene of protests.

Some beach goers were happy to spend the day on the world famous Clifton beach.

“We came here last week and we decided that this is the perfect beach for our family because it’s not much crowded and it’s very safe for the children.”

”I am here now today with my family enjoying. I am happy so I said I must go to beach today and enjoy our day,” says another one.