Durban Is Now A Filthy Dirty Squatter Camp

Snowy Smith - 2/23/2009Summary of my letters to ANC Comrade Michael Sutcliffe, the city manager of Durban, South Africa.

I refer to my last fifteen letters to you, and which you have not replied to. Again, I must warn you that the entire Durban beachfront area is in a permanent state of deterioration and neglect. Despite many complaints, there have been no improvements. You advertise the city of Durban as a tourist Mecca, with clean, safe beaches, but the truth, as documented by me over the past five years or so, is the exact opposite.



In fact, Durban's tourist area has now become one big, filthy, faeces-smeared, littered, broken glass-strewn squatter camp.

Vagrants have taken over the municipal toilets, which were built for the tourist trade. The water streaming into the ocean is so filthy and polluted with human faeces that Durban has lost its Blue Flag designation.

On Sunday, January 18 2009, I took another early morning stroll along the vagrant-infested embankment - at great risk to my own life I might add, since it's very unsafe, especially for white tourists with cameras. There were three murders on Durban beach on December 18 2008 alone. And during the last eighteen days in December, there were 1722 assaults, 111 gunshot wounds, 493 stabbings, and 282 rapes in this beachfront area.

On Christmas and New Year's, literally millions of broken beer bottles, human waste were deposited along the Durban beach front.

There were tens of thousands of drunken hooligans everywhere, stabbing people, mugging, raping and shooting.

Each day, residents in the flats along the embankment, like myself, have to look at this disgusting squatter camp mess.

We get smoked out inside our flats all day and night from their cooking fires. The place is smeared in human faeces, tons of litter and mountains of broken glass bottles which nobody is cleaning up.

During my early-morning walk on January 18, 2008, I counted 403 black vagrants sleeping on the Embankment alone. And there are many hundreds of vagrants also sleeping every night on the following sites: Stanger Street, Albert Park to the start of Southern Freeway, and along the railway lines, atop and next to the municipal toilets, and the green pumping station.

They always leave a huge mess, human faeces, rubbish and broken glass, and burnt out fires when they leave each morning.


All these streets are turning into squatter slums.

There are frequent, very large gang fights around the embankment's municipal toilet, the Yacht Mole and the Victoria Embankment.

Squatters are sleeping in every doorway, alley and bushes around the Yacht Mole and Wilson's Wharf.

Almost Every night, violent vagrants are chasing each other with sticks, screaming and shouting and running into the road in front of oncoming traffic at night.

We often phone the police -- but they never respond to these violent events.

The squatters have even moved onto the roof of the municipal toilets, averaging two to six each night sleeping there.

Also, they do their daily washing at the municipal toilets and hang it up to dry on the railway fence - not a pretty sight for tourists or residents.

There is stinking sewerage behind all the buildings around the entrance to the Yacht Mole. The complete railway line is covered in tons of rubbish, broken glass, an eyesore. I believe the municipal toilets should be demolished, and the half-round flower pots used by vagrants 24/7, should also be removed.

If you are not going to demolish the toilet then I suggest that you put up powerful spot-lights on high pole so the homeless cannot hide and sleep in the bushes.

The complete Victoria Embankment railway lines area is full of rubbish.


Public drinking takes place on the streets of the Victoria Embankment every day and night.

And all the glass bottles are thrown onto the railway lines.

Six months ago, the cast-iron manhole covers were stolen - which are creating a dangerous situation for pedestrians. They have yet to be replaced.


Your green water-pumping station building is falling down and it's rapidly being turned into a squatter camp, with drunken vagrants sleeping next to the building every night.

This past Christmas season and New Year's season at the Durban Beach Front was a total disaster - and a nightmare for local residents.

There were three murders on Durban beach on December 18 alone. And during the last eighteen days in December, there were 1722 assaults, 111 gunshot wounds, 493 stabbings, and 282 rapes. On Christmas and New Year's, literally millions of broken beer bottles, human waste were deposited along the Durban beach front. There were tens of thousands of drunken hooligans everywhere, stabbing people, mugging, raping and shooting. Afterwards, the street cleaners picked up off 37,000 bags of rubbish from just two streets afterwards along the beach. And there were 51,000 bags of litter collected from the beach - rubbish, human waste and broken glass. In weight, this amounted to 716 tons of rubbish and broken glass.

In fact all of once so pristine Durban is deteriorating into a squatter slum, a filthy, disgusting, unhealthy mess, with dangerously polluted water streaming into the ocean. The whole place also looks like a permanent prison now, a nightmare scenario with shuttered shops, heavy burglar bars, barbed wire, vagrants and incredible pollution everywhere.

And Durban is a muggers' paradise, besides being an environmental disaster.

Yet you are advertising Durban as the Nr. 1 holiday destination in South Africa, where all tourists are safe and welcome.

It's all a lie: Durban is the Mugging capital of South Africa, and has become a disgusting, derelict slum.

The Toilet, formerly known as Durban ..

Durban rivers are polluted with “health threatening levels of E.coli bacteria” – New South African speak for “the local Victims of Apartheid have shat the place broken.”

The feces levels in the rivers are “hundreds of times over the recommended safety limits for drinking, washing, swimming or canoeing,” according to the insipid dripping liberal the Mercury newspaper.

One can only wonder if there is any connection between the public toilet known as Durban and the Monday announcement by the “eThekwini” (that must be a Zulu word for “outside shithouse”) Municipality's Water and Sanitation department to residents in several areas north of Durban that they face a "slow down" in their water supply for at least two days this week.

Don’t you just love these New South African words? Eskom has “load shedding”, and now water supplies are subject to “slow downs”. Ha. They don’t fool me.

Those words are just code for “crumbling infrastructure caused by getting rid of Whitey.”

You want proof? Well, the eThekwini Municipality has been singled out as of the "most significant" polluters of some rivers because of the failure to repair burst sewer lines and poor management at some waste-water treatment plants, according to a report conducted by Pietermaritzburg-based river scientist Mark Graham, on behalf of the municipality.

His report describes some of the worst affected rivers as little more than "open sewers". Oh, you mean like the streets of Durban itself?

Apart from the real possibility of gastro-intestinal sicknesses such as "Dusi-guts", his report also points to the potential for spreading more serious waterborne diseases - including hepatitis, typhoid and dysentery. Charming.

Let’s hope some silly liberal foreign tourists take up the invitation shown in SAA incoming flights of the wonders of swimming and canoeing in Durban! Ha!

In the lower reaches of the Mbokodweni River, south of Durban, there were reports of children developing welts or sores on their skin from playing in the highly polluted water, according to Graham’s report.

Where the Mlazi River flows into the concrete Umlaas Canal section, he found "geysers" of raw sewage bubbling up from the bottom of test samples that showed readings of 280 000 counts of E.coli/100ml of water during his latest 2007 survey.

Graham reported similar high readings of E.coli to authorities during the 2006 survey, but it appeared that "little had been done" to fix the problem.

Graham's report follows disclosures published in the Mercury on Wednesday focusing on at least one significant leak from a broken sewer line at the Umhlatuzana River, and reports that organisers of the Dusi canoe Marathon were considering calling off future events if E-coli levels were found to be too high. Many paddlers had come down with tummy bugs since the recent marathon.

By The Real Realist

see Mail & Gaurdian's article here

'The beach was a supreme mess'

Police were unprepared for the back-to-back end of school term parties that left the Durban beachfront strewn with litter and broken bottles at the weekend.

Metro Police spokesperson Superintendent Joyce Khuzwayo said that the service had operated its normal patrols because it had not anticipated the influx of revellers.

"If we had known that school parties were going to be held at the beaches, we would have sent out more units to patrol," she said

Khuzwayo said many of the buses transporting pupils to the beach were from the Eastern Cape.

She blamed teachers and schools for not informing the police that their pupils were planning beach celebrations.

"We are now approaching schools to inform them of how to conduct themselves in public," Khuzwayo said, adding that while the police could arrest offenders, officers were careful not to apprehend minors.

The Democratic Alliance lashed out at the lack of control in the beachfront areas.

Democratic Alliance ward councillor Avrille Coen said that the party had put forward a motion in July calling for a plan to be developed using increased visible policing patrols, adopting a zero-tolerance programme of enforcement and maximising the use of closed-circuit television.

She said the ANC had vetoed the motion, saying that the situation was well under control.

However, in the light of the weekend's events, the Democratic Alliance would be reintroducing the motion.

Coen said the area between Blue Lagoon and the military museum was worst hit.

"When I went to inspect on Saturday morning, the area was littered with broken alcohol bottles and rubbish. People were drinking in broad daylight and, while there were scattered metro policemen, nothing was done."

Coen said another problem was that many people contracted to Durban Solid Waste (DSW) were striking in solidarity with Remant Alton employees, but that the cleaners at the scene had done a great job.

"The cleaners were escorted by security as they cleaned up the mess, but they did a fantastic job."

The strewn broken bottles caused havoc with athletes taking part in the Suncoast Olympic-distance triathlon on Sunday. Durban athlete Max Havemann said that, despite the city's attempts to clean up, there was broken glass on the roads.

He said at least 15 athletes had had to end their race because of punctures.

Quiksilver SA boss Arthur Limbouris said he was shocked at the bad state of the beach.

"The beach was a supreme mess, the worst I have ever seen it."

He said Durban surfer Amber Kilfoil, 18, severed tendons in her foot when she trod on glass.

"She will have to have an operation and will be on crutches for more than three months," he said.

Welcome to Durbans Black Flag Beaches...

Where unusual swimwear is the order of the day...! Be it bras and panties or support leggings and gym wear worn back to front..FREEDOM..is the word!

Not only are beach goers free to take a long shit in the sea with the breeze blowing away any nasty cabbage and moroggo stink, but they can wash their smelly cracks in the sea water and then carry on swimming merrily with all the other dim wits who couldn't give a dam about the risks of cholera or hepatitis which can be picked up from swimming in filth and human excrement.

Rubbish, rubbish... endless piles of stinky rubbish..!

Never mind the rubbish piled high...check the state of the pavement... look out for this cosistant lack of maintainence throughout most of the pics on this blog... Mayoral Award for Excellence...my arse!









A big THANK YOU goes to Snowy Smith for his time and effort, and the risk he took going into the scaliest parts of Durban city to get this documentation of pictures. Not only did he have to brave the filth, stink and flies by the million, all in their full metal jackets, but he was also followed by muggers who tried to rob him of his camera and mobile phone!

Snowy...you are The Man...thank you so much for doing this!

The Durban car wash industry

Pavements are for people, not cars!

Thousands of vehicles are being washed on the Durban streets and roads every day. All this soap and detergent seep through the garbage stuffed storm water drains, ending up in the already highly TOXIC rivers, streams and the bay and eventually into the sea - KILLING THE ENVIRONMENT...!

Why the problems with waste water management..?

Garbage, Pollution, Turds and Beer..

Ho hum....why is there a big problem with waste water management in Durban? Now not to mention the run off from the improvised car washes and general liquid disposal, think about this... every time there is heavy rains and storms, all the run off from the streets, buildings etc has no where to go. Oh Duh..!


Why not...? Well DUH again...in Durban the use of rubbish bins is not BIG you see...and so all storm water systems have become clogged to capacity with mountains of filth and garbage. AND I MEAN FILTH..!


Adding to the problem is the lucrative trade in scrap metal, which has seen the theft of cast iron man hole covers becoming a growth industry. The local population has mistaken the open man holes for rubbish bins and toilets...yip...no jokes...not only do Durbanites use open manholes to stuff their rubbish in, but that gaping hole in the pavement triggers something in the psyche that leads some people to think nothing of pulling down their rods and taking a steaming dump into the dark, gaping, tempting hole...reminiscent of a long drop...but unfortunately for the public at large is a very SHORT DROP..!

Welcome to Royal Natal Yacht Club

Yes, I would also think this is a shot of some tycoons toy from 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous', and believe me there still are some wanna-be jet setters left in South Africa, and in Durban too. Heaven alone knows why they haven't organized moorings for their luxuary toys off the coast of Croatia instead of Durban...I mean, surely if you can afford a nice snazzy boat like this one in the pic, you could afford to moor next to the 'Lady Moohna' in Monte Carlo or at least somewhere in a cozy nook off the Isle of Capri?...But shame, I suppose some folks, even if they are wealthy, have had to let their standards drop so as to remain happy in the huge dustbin of Durban....and one place you will be sure to find them is at the local yacht club...drowning their sorrows no doubt while they watch the Rand plummet and South African politics taking a scary and nasty turn.


The Royal Natal Yacht Club is the oldest Yacht Club in Africa, and is the fifth oldest Yacht Club in the Southern Hemisphere. It was constituted in May, 1858, when the first Regatta was held in Durban, and the Durban Regatta Club was formed. It later became known as the Natal Yacht Club, and in 1891 received its charter, and from thenceforth received the treasured title of The Royal Natal Yacht Club. From far all looks splendid, beautiful luxury yachts abound, a scene of beauty and affluence...but oh shit (pun intended)...once you land your helicopter and get up close and personal...my, my..a scene of filth and horror awaits....


Fancy a spot of lunch on the terrace old sport..? I don't think so my dear chum..! Not with all the rubbish and floating poop just meters away...why it's enough to spoil ones appetite for life...Say...is there any air-born disease one can catch from just breathing in the putrid smells of rotting garbage mixed with the odor of human urine, fecal matter, decaying corpses of dead animals and toxic waste...?


A stink so bad it's almost solid!

The stinking state of SA’s waters - No Blue Flags ONLY RED FLAGS..!

Is it safe to let our kids swim here?

Due to mismanagement, many of South Africa’s beaches and rivers have become cesspools of human waste and a threat to health and the environment. Go to the beach. Have a swim. And wallow in human ****. That’s the ugly reality facing bathers in Durban this holiday season: they can expect to find themselves swimming in human faeces — 18 million liters of it.


And despite being given two weeks to clean up their act, the eThekwini municipality failed to take the necessary steps to ensure its beaches were clean. This inertia led to the city losing four of its six “Blue Flags” — an internationally accredited rating — at its beaches this week.


North Beach, South Beach, Bay of Plenty and Addington Beach lost this status after failing tests for water quality. Litter and dirty ablution facilities were also cited as reasons for the decision. A fifth beach at Westbrook, north of Durban, is also set to lose its Blue Flag status.



Now the faecal-infested waters have raised a stink between environmentalists and the eThekwini municipality.

Although environmentalists say the impure water quality spells disaster for thousands of tourists who gather at Durban’s most famous attraction during the holidays, senior municipal officials have played down concerns. The head of eThekwini’s water and waste department, Neil Macleod, admitted that, in the past seven days, the volume of sewage flowing into the sea via the Isipingo River has been estimated at 18 million litres per day. The leak was a result of storm-damaged pipelines and Macleod said repair work to the damaged line was under way.



But the danger, says SA Blue Flag beach co-ordinator Allison Kelly, is that the filth is still in the water and the council doesn’t want to act in the best interests of its swimmers. She said her office had been inundated with telephone calls from local residents and Gauteng holidaymakers who wanted to know if it was safe to swim at Durban beaches.


“We need to let them now if the water is acceptable for swimming. At this stage we just don’t know; it could be good or bad. So, swim at your own risk,” she said.

She said the council was allowed a two- week grace period but “nothing happened and the Blue Flag (status) was taken away”.

“The loss is very worrying and has massive repercussions for our tourism industry, especially during this time when thousands of people come to the city to enjoy the beaches,” said Kelly.

Although Blue Flag status had also been withdrawn from Margate and Gonubie beach in East London in recent years, most participating beaches did not have difficulty in complying with the standards.

The situation at Margate and Gonubie had since improved considerably, following determined action by the municipalities to find and eradicate the pollution sources.

The environmentalists’ warning was echoed by independent national aquatic biologist Dr Mark Graham, whose recent report into water quality revealed the alarming extent of pollution in rivers and seas.

“It isn’t safe for the public or tourists to be swimming in water that contains raw sewage,” he said.

The DA’s Radley Keys, a member of the provincial legislature, said he was appalled by the “complete ineptitude and inaction on the part of the KZN Department of Environmental Affairs in response to the major incidences of water pollution in the province in the past the months”.

“While the priorities must be human and environmental health, the economic issues, such as losing domestic and international tourism revenue as a result of potentially losing the Duzi canoe race and all our Blue Flag beaches, are also critical,” he said.

But city manager Mike Sutcliffe has denied there was a crisis. “That woman, Allison Kelly, has no right to tell us what to do. I find it quite offensive. Our water is perfectly safe. I am writing a letter to Blue Flag international. Unless they remove her, we are pulling out of the programme,” said Sutcliffe. He said Kelly was playing a “political game started” by opposition parties.

“The city scientists are accredited and have done outstanding work and she wants to test the integrity by bringing in independent scientists,” said Sutcliffe.

Umhlanga’s main beach and Westbrook beach still carry the blue flag status, but Kelly said the latter was likely to lose its status soon. She said Hibberdene beach on the Hibiscus coast was doing “fantastically” and was compliant with world-class standards, and Ramsgate, Margate and Marina beaches along the South Coast were prime examples of excellent Blue Flag beaches.

Ndabo Khoza, Tourism KZN’s CEO, said the Blue Flag status was used to attract tourists to Durban. “The impact could be quite serious, because the removal of the Blue Flag has taken away the key marketing edge and it’s a knock on an international level.”

The Times

Sewage leaks into Durban river

Heavily polluted water from a punctured sewage pipe appears to have been flowing into the Durban harbour via the Umhlatuzana River for up to nine months -- reportedly the result of a bungled repair job by eThekwini council contract workers, the Mercury newspaper reported on Wednesday.


The newspaper's investigation on Tuesday also disclosed evidence of illegal discharges of a resinous waste into council sewers in Durban's Seaview area.

The Mercury reported that sewage was still gushing into the river on Tuesday morning despite the fact that city manager Mike Sutcliffe said on December 28 he would "leave no stone unturned" to get to the bottom of a massive fish kill in Durban harbour over the Christmas holidays.


Staff at a nearby factory told reporters that the overflow into the Umhlatuzana River started in April last year when eThekwini council contract workers cut a hole in the pipe with oxy-acetylene torches to relieve pressure from a blocked sewage pipe near the corner of Umhlatuzana and Harden Roads in Seaview.

Neil Macleod, head of the eThekwini Water and Waste Department, said he had asked staff for a full report on the matter, but he disputed that the pipe had been leaking for nine months. He told the newspaper the problem could have arisen more recently.

Nevertheless, correspondence shown to the Mercury suggests that the municipal manager's office had been made aware of the blockage -– and the possibility of an illegal stormwater to sewer pipe connection -- eight months ago.

Macleod on Tuesday night confirmed to the paper that contractors had been employed to fix the problem between March and August last year and that sewage had flowed into the Umhlatuzana River for at least five months as there was nowhere else to divert the flow while the blockage was cleared.


However, he disputed that sewage had been flowing into the river for nine months.

In a statement released on January 9, Sutcliffe said an early warning system would be developed to prevent fish kills at the Durban harbour. - Sapa

Liar, liar pants on fire ...!

Durban is not facing a crisis - water boss

Durban water and sanitation head Neil Macleod has acknowledged problems at some of the city's sewage treatment works, but denied that the city was facing a crisis.

He was responding to recent exposures in The Mercury and the television documentary Carte Blanche about potentially health-threatening levels of sewage pollution in several rivers, reportedly owing to a lack of maintenance or management problems at municipal waste-water treatment works.

Macleod said he was preparing a comprehensive response to recent media reports and a scientific report on the state of Durban rivers by expert Mark Graham.

"The public needs to know what is happening and to have confidence in what we are doing - and we will make that information available."

Pressed to comment on a weekend Carte Blanche investigation suggesting that more than a third of the country's waste-water treatment works required immediate maintenance to prevent a water pollution crisis comparable to the Eskom blackouts, Macleod said he could not comment on the situation facing other municipalities.

"I can only speak about Durban, where most of our treatment works are fine and which meet the standards consistently," he said.


Noting that the former Durban municipality had taken over several treatment works during the amalgamation process of the enlarged eThekwini Metro Council, Macleod said: "There are some where we have had to spend tens of millions of rands to fix (problems)... Some are finished, some are not. But in relation to our municipality, I don't think it's a fair reflection to suggest that there is a crisis."

Responsible

Graham reported in his latest assessment of the city's rivers that the eThekwini municipality was "largely responsible for the poor condition of many of the rivers".

He reported that there were several sites where E.coli (sewage) pollution posed a "significant likelihood" of causing gastro-intestinal illness during recreation - and that in some cases significant sewage pollution from municipal treatment works had not been remedied for several years. He singled out the Umbilo and Umhlatuzana waste-water treatment works and the Izimbokodweni sewer pump station.

Macleod said no conclusive evidence had been gathered so far on the source of the recent "red river" pollution in a Pinetown stream feeding the Umbilo River. He was also unaware of complaints by Seaview factory owner Mike Gedye, who reported that the car park at Froggies Footwear was contaminated with sewage on Sunday night after a heavy rainstorm.

"No one has reported this to us, but if the sewers are blocked again, someone has obviously put something down there again because we have already replaced some of those pipes entirely," he said.

Water Pollution in the Durban Bay - South Africa

All rivers lead to the SEA...!

Surfs Up Dudes..!A short documentary created by 3 students at the University of KwaZulu Natal focusing on public opinion of anthropogenic pollution on beaches in Durban, South Africa.


WOW..! A disgusting stinking mess! Durban Bay, South Africa. TOXIC WASTE from the City of Durban storm water outlet from central Durban. Spring low tide is the best time to inspect the pollution...
AND THE SMELL THE STINKING BAY MUD..!
There are +-28 storm water outlets in the Durban Bay. This is only one!

Floating pollution is only 10% of the problem, the other 90% of the pollution is the TOXIC WASTE that either dissolves into the water or sinks to the bottom and into the mud which is an even greater danger to the environment. Killing the rivers, streams bays and the sea.












Turds, turds everywhere, it's heaps and heaps of stinking fly and maggot infested TURDS..!