KZN floods: Durban's beaches closed over Easter weekend
Locals and holidaymakers who were hoping to spend the Easter weekend swimming at Durban's beaches have had their plans dashed.
Durban Tourism says the city's beaches will be closed because of the floods.
Agency head Phillip Sithole says 16% of Easter weekend bookings in KwaZulu-Natal have been cancelled.
They were expecting around 86 000 holidaymakers in the province, but that's gone down to around 50 000.
"Some major hotels are still reporting occupation of around 50 percent, which is not bad compared to what we are experiencing now, which has been caused by the floods."
"So we are open for business, visitors can still come enjoy. The promenades are open to the public. If you want to cycle or do jogging, you can still do to all promenades in the City of Durban."
Crews and volunteers have been at work cleaning up the beaches in Durban.
The heavy rains washed all manner of debris onto the shore, prompting massive clean-ups.
The ferocious floods also floated a fuel tanker onto the beachfront of the Durban Country Club on Tuesday.
Residents and businesses have joined Umhlanga UIP's clean-up at Bronze beach that started on Tuesday.
UIP spokesperson Melanie Rosenstine says although they still have a lot of ground to cover, they have made great progress.
"As the UIP, we supplied two 13 cubic skips, 50 large canvas bags, 22 additional staff and tree felling teams. A recycling company was on standby to cart the rubbish away once collected.
"eThekwini Municipality also deployed manpower and vehicles in their clean-up efforts. Most of the plastic rubbish was cleared and the remaining natural vegetation will be cut up and be moved to the high water mark tomorrow.
"Among the rubbish, we collected two portaloos, one complete toilet, one go-cart and a fridge."
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