SUN, SEA AND SEWAGE
Durban tourism still limping following lacklustre holiday season while KZN overall sees uptick
Regular beach closures due to E. coli and persistent rain challenged efforts to make tourists feel welcome in the city.
In 2015, 7.4 million people visited Durban, with a total direct spend of R19.2-billion reported. This year, the direct spend is estimated to be R1.6-billion, with an estimated 800,000 visitors. While this is a marginal improvement from the previous year of R1.5-million with just under 703,000 visitors, it is a far cry from the city’s glory days.
In an ongoing effort to bolster confidence in Durban, Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda gave assurances that eThekwini is performing well in a briefing last week, stating that hotel occupancy is at 75% compared with 72% last year.
The mayor said there were 112,101 visitors in Durban over the 16 December long weekend, and the projected total number of visitors for the festive season would be close to 800,000.
Over December, locals and tourists had to keep a close eye on news reports and municipality announcement pages to know if six of the most prominent beaches in Durban would be open. They frequently closed due to high E. coli levels detected by the city and environmentalist non-profit organisations. The water quality was tested at uShaka Beach, Point Beach, South Beach, North Beach, Battery Beach, and Country Club Beach in November, with results revealing E. coli levels at each of these beaches exceeded levels that are safe for swimming.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Caught again! Durban tries to hide crappy sea water quality results as holiday season beckons
Durban resident Nkululeko Mntungwa told Daily Maverick he found going to the beach had lost its appeal. “Just the other day the children’s pools were closed, piers were closed. I don’t know why beach showers don’t work. No food to buy at the beachfront without going to the bars. It felt a bit depressing. 2024 is here maybe we must get a government that can improve our Durban beaches.”
Elsewhere, a restaurant owner in Bluff, Durban said, “This festive season has been a flop, I have not seen Durban so quiet in December. You can see it even in the malls, it’s quiet,” he said.
The eThekwini municipality recently repainted pools in Durban beach front but beach goers say the beach was routinely closed and not ready to welcome bathers. (Photo: Supplied by Nkululeko Mntungwa)
A quick sweep through eThekwini Municipality’s communication platforms tells the story of regular power and water outages that exacerbate the plight of small business owners in the region.
Read more in Daily Maverick: How safe are South Africa’s popular holiday beaches ahead of the festive season?
South Coast shines
While Durban has seemingly lost its shine, south of the city, tourism is thriving. Chief Executive Officer of South Coast Tourism and Investment Enterprise (SCTIE), Phelisa Mangcu said the South Coast has reported 100% occupancy in the peak of the festive season.
“The festive season is one of the KZN South Coast’s busiest times, and we’ve been happy with the positive response received so far. Although visitor numbers are still coming in, reports from our bigger tourism establishments between Christmas and New Year indicated 100% occupancy rates, which is really good news for our tourism economy,” Mangcu told Daily Maverick on 4 January, 2023.
“Many tourists are keen for a seaside break over the summer season, and the KZN South Coast is fortunate to be home to the highest number of Blue Flag beaches and the highest number of tidal pools in the province,” said Mangcu.
The Blue Flag is an international certification of environmental management relating to water quality, safety, and public environmental education, and a highly sought-after certification in the tourism industry. Marina, Trafalgar, Southport, Umzumbe, and Hibberdene beaches all have Blue Flag status. Pilot Blue Flag status was awarded to Pennington, Rocky Bay, Preston, uMtwalume, Scottburgh, St Michaels, and Ramsgate beaches.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Adams Mission residents resort to unfiltered stream water after months with dry taps in KZN town
MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs Siboniso Duma says there are signs of “extraordinary recovery” of tourism in KZN. In a statement released on Thursday, the MEC stated that the supply of bed nights for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day increased by 4% compared to last year. On average occupancy increased by about 2% from the beginning of December — “meaning 63.5% up from 61.1% from last year”.
Duma stated that full figures will be shared at the end of January but said the council is “encouraged by the drastic improvements in terms of accommodation bookings compared to last year”.
Duma said the province is still receiving inquiries about entertainment activities and accommodation, with visitors interested in visiting inland, along the coastline and in the townships.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Coastal concerns
“We must hasten to point out that apart from the reported increase in traffic along the tourism corridors — N3 and N2 — some of our holidaymakers arrived through our regional airports and King Shaka International Airport,” Duma said.
Duma highlighted that the Airports Company South Africa and other relevant bodies will present their official statistics when the festive season ends.
“Finally, we salute law enforcement agencies who are deployed to ensure visibility and the safety of our visitors,” said Duma. DM
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In 2015, 7.4 million people visited Durban, with a total direct spend of R19.2-billion reported. This year, the direct spend is estimated to be R1.6-billion, with an estimated 800,000 visitors. While this is a marginal improvement from the previous year of R1.5-million with just under 703,000 visitors, it is a far cry from the city’s glory days.
I can’t believe this statistic is ignored in the rest of the article …that is the stupendously bad !
Seemingly well deserved with its incompetent and corrupt administration.
Can someone please delete this rubbish!?
The bottom line is…. You can smell the sewage in the sea from 100m away.
There is absolutely no chance that anybody with half s brain would go near any beach in Durban.
The first time in 20 years our family did not dare to put our big toes in the ocean in Durban.
Who would want to drive from JHB to DBN to stand and stare at the sea? Might as well head to the Vaal and save the money… Bonus..much lower e -coli count..
Poor reporting. You are comparing number of visitors for the year in 2015 to the month of December in 2023. Really shocking maths!
Read again. It’s year in year figures mate.
“In 2015, 7.4 million people visited Durban, with a total direct spend of R19.2-billion reported. This year, the direct spend is estimated to be R1.6-billion, with an estimated 800,000 visitors. While this is a marginal improvement from the previous year of R1.5-million with just under 703,000 visitors, it is a far cry from the city’s glory days.”
I think that’s unambiguous. They are comparing year 2015 against year 2023 and year 2023 against year 2022.
It may not be an easy fix, but it’s blindingly obvious, and has been for a very long time. Fix. The. Beaches.
While fixing the beaches may be a catalyst for tourism to return, it will take a lot to convince the other essential ingredients to return. That is money and people. Who would dare invest any capital or send trained people in to make the experience of tourists beyond the beaches something where they would want to return? With decaying hotels, streets and other infrastructure, it is no wonder that Cape Town is experiencing one of its best seasons ever.
Capetown is indeed experiencing a best season ever. In fact, so successful that beaches a real turn off. Overcrowded and filthy… trash and chicken bones everywhere. City will need to charge for access on some beaches if it wants to avoid Durban’s fate.
Can’t fix the beaches without fixing the water infrastructure. ANC stole all the money which was meant for this for 30 years. There is no money for that now.
Then, people do not feel safe in Durban any more. No policing. Criminals run free.
This is a multi pronged issue
There are direct, harmful, and lasting consequences to bad (socialist/anti-business) policies + terrible actors (incompetent/corrupt). The economic fallout eventually manifests itself, and the picture is an ugly one. MEC for Tourism, one Siboniso Duma can spin about an ‘extraordinary recovery’, faithfully reported by DM of course, but in the end it can’t be hidden. Durban has got the metro government it voted for (after some heathy envelope diplomacy). The last and final straw is the lease renewal of the Elangeni/Maharani hotels. If these are not renewed, and so far this venal City Council have refused to do so, those buildings will be stripped. Southern Sun will take the business elsewhere and leave them as shells. The new stupidly naive empowerment partner who will then be allocated the leases will not have the resources or knowledge to rebuild, so expect high rise student accommodation. Very little is being written about this. Fun World was closed under similar circumstances and is now dead. The Hilton is gone. A 10x drop in visitors, from 7.2m to 800k, is not, incredibly, the bottom.
So Durban has “socialist” policies but the South Coast doesn’t? because it has very good tourism numbers. It is about bad and corrupt management of the city. It has nothing to do with “socialism”.
Well, we are talking about municipalities right? Different ones. In Durban’s case, after the floods, the Council took the decision to restore water supplies to the poorest parts of the city first. This deflected funds from its water treatment plants and its commercial areas. Other resource allocation decisions followed after the riots. The results are clear. It’s ideological decision-making.
No, the South Coast is also beset by the same ideological intransigence. The Ugu municipality a case in point. I guess the gain it enjoyed at Durban’s expense is simply because those decisions haven’t wrecked those beaches yet.
We must be careful not to think that the damage done and being done by the ANC is simply because of corruption and incompetence – they are fundamentally on a different path.
South Coast’s uptick is largely due to the “Tidy Towns” iniative, essentially a local government/residents partnership with Rotary doing the book keeping. There’s also an element of job creation.
I know that residents shouldn’t have to do these things, but along that coast, where so much depends on tourist numbers, it pays them – and local businesses – to get involved.
I don’t think this is anything to do with socialism V capitalism.
What is it to do with? Take your pick from
1) Incompetence
2) Nepotism
3) Corruption
4) All of the above
Ok, I’ve gone down a sunny South Coast rabbit hole here. Yes it is easier to just dumb the debate down to (in)competence and corruption etc. But we must remember that when we find these competent, honest ANC people, they will still do the wrong thing. We’ve a 30 year track record to reference. If Covid relief funds are made available to help small tourism businesses on the South Coast get going again, the ANC will prevent many of them from receiving these funds on the basis of their BEE scorecard. When the Ugu municipality again gets funded to fix its water treatment facility properly, these funds will go to some other ANC priority and the water tankers will keep driving. The Southern Sun hotel leases will go to some inexperienced, underfunded non-entity and the cadres will point how they’ve stuck to all the rules. The sugar (cane) industry in KZN has been pummelled due to bad policies, and Patel’s answer is a Sugar ‘Master Plan’. All of this happens under honest cadres too because the ANC wants to see the economy reshaped. This is ideology at play. The NDR is not fake news.
I’ll leave this here.
Sound analysis and conclusion. thank you.
I passed through Scottburgh during Easter of 2022 and was horrified that there was NO running water or Vodacom reception. King Shaka was without running water or aircon, except for a single toilet.
I was in Durban briefly last year (2023) on business – king shaka was running smoothly but I was horrified by the state of decay in the City.
I have many wonderful childhood memories of Durban but I would not set foot there again voluntarily, and most definitely not on holiday.
I remember being shocked at the state of Maputo in the 1990s, with garbage piled waist-high on every sidewalk. Well, Durban is headed that way. Gross overpopulation and grotesque governmental incompetence make for a deadly combination.
And the anc remains proud of their work.
The ongoing clown show that is the eThekwini Municipality continues at full pace. The lack of any kind of knowledge at senior management level is has taken Comrade Uselessness to staggering new heights. We have a city manager who earns R10 000.00 PER DAY who couldn’t manage his way out of a paper bag that was wet.
Sewage pumps installed that should run for 20 years last for 8 days because the pump management systems are from 1965, but hey that’s ok, another comrade will get amatenda to procure another one at grossly inflated prices.
What is worse is these clowns had to send R1.9 BILLION back to treasury because they failed to spend it on infrastructure repair as mandated. The problem obviously was that the Comrades of the ANC couldn’t figure out how to steal it in time.
The only way Durban is saved and, this goes for the whole country, is when the corrupt, steaming, stinking clown show that is the gaggle of ANC hyenas is removed once and for all
As many have said, the problem is incompetent, politically directed management. Most artisans at the coal face are qualified and keen and able to work, but are stymied by unqualified, incompetent, politically deployed cadre managers. Decisions are taken for political reasons, leading to the decaying infrastructure in the Metro.
Its such a shame what Durban has become, a chaotic slum governed by avaricious me first, me second and if there is any left me again incompetents. Only the certifiably insane would go for a holiday there.
There is an error in the first paragraph – 2023 figures , 1.6 billion , previous year (2022) 1.5 “million” – should read 1.5 billion.
As a former resident of Durban, residing in Gauteng , I have spent at least 1 week a year in December inDurban for the last 25 years, spending about R35k each time… Durban is now a dirty, discrepit, shit threw, corrupt African city, where even the residents stay clear of the Beach fronts. I’m never making the mistake of coming here again
I was going to write my own comment. Then I read Martin Neethling’s contributions. He said what I would have said. But better.
The Western Cape must please develop a “Kruger National Park” , then we will not have to go anywhere any more. Even Nelson Mandela Bay and the Addo is not safe or in good shape any more. And Hole in the Wall and Port St Johns the same. What a shame
I was born in Durban 88 years ago and during my lifetime I have never seen Dirtbin in a worse condition. It will not improve with the current incompetent Council who do not know enough to know what they don’t know.