On Sunday morning, the Nelson Mandela Bay metro had to apologise to residents after they mistakenly closed the metro’s premier beaches for an “oil spill” that turned out to be ash from veld fires raging all week.

The three beaches that were closed are the metro’s Blue Flag beaches. 

On Saturday morning, in a fairly alarming notice marked as urgent, the municipality declared it was closing Kings Beach, Pollock Beach and Humewood Beach – all part of the metro’s beachfront – as a precautionary measure “due to a suspected oil spill”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: How safe are South Africa’s popular holiday beaches ahead of the festive season?

“Teams are working in the affected beaches to confirm what seems like an oil spill and its origin,” the notice read. “In the meantime, the Metro has decided to close these beaches to limit the risk to people’s health.”

The acting executive director for arts, sport, recreation and culture, Charmaine Williams, said: “We had to move swiftly and close the beaches as we did not know how risky it would be to allow people to swim. We understand the weather is perfect for the beach; however, we had better be safe than sorry.”

On Sunday, the beaches were open again, with metro spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki saying the black substance on the beaches was ash from veld fires: 

“On Sunday, the three beaches, Kings Beach, Humewood and Pollock Beaches, have been cleared of oil spills. Following a communication on Saturday of a suspected oil spill, an investigation confirmed that the substance found in the water was ash from the recent fires in Summerstrand and the surrounding areas on Friday, 8 March 2024.

“The beaches are now cleared to be safe for bathers. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Mniki said on Sunday the metro decided to close the beaches to protect people’s lives as “death only happens once”.

“These are only beaches. It is not as if we closed a service like water or electricity,” Mniki said. “We thought there might be a risk. It would have been careless first to consult and then close. We took samples and had it tested.”

I understand the frustration, though, from the tourism sector, but if it had been an oil spill and the metro hadn’t closed the beaches, would tourism be angry then?

Mniki added that they were acting proactively.

But Tati Tsunke, the leader of the Nelson Mandela Bay’s Business Chamber’s Beachfront cluster, said the bad publicity triggered by the sudden closure of the beaches “due to an oil spill” was careless and potentially damaging to the metro’s tourism sector.

“We are heading towards the Easter holidays, and we don’t want any miscommunications, like this one, to affect our reputation as a premier beach destination,” he said. “People are falling in love with Nelson Mandela Bay’s beaches again, and we don’t want anything to affect this,” he said. 

“Nobody checked with us. It needs to be corrected. We are elevating the beachfront once again as a great destination and have worked hard to address crime problems that were affecting us. I must also credit the municipality, which has been working very hard with the police to address the crime problem.” 

‘Tough call’

Gary Koekemoer from the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa’s Algoa Bay branch said closing the beaches was probably not an overreaction.

Koekemoer, who swims regularly in the sea, said the swimmers were all adamant that it wasn’t oil. 

“The metro brought in Extreme Projects to advise,” he said. “It was after we chatted that they reopened the beaches. The swimmers were adamant that it wasn’t oil because we were out there. I think they were concerned about public safety. I would have assumed it was the fires also because the harbours did not report any oil spills.

“I understand the frustration, though, from the tourism sector, but if it had been an oil spill and the metro hadn’t closed the beaches, would tourism be angry then? It’s a tough call to make, and these are Blue Flag beaches, so extra caution is required.” 

Past oil spills have devastated Algoa Bay, especially because its islands house large gannets and African penguin colonies. There were three big spills in Algoa Bay, in 2016, 2017 and 2021. DM