Durban — The eThekwini Municipality said it had started the process of repairing all CCTV cameras and the work would be finalised by the end of this month.
This was revealed by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda at the reopening of the Laguna swimming pools near Blue Lagoon on Thursday. The pools were closed in December last year as sand entering the pools was blocking the filtration pipes.
Kaunda said repairing the CCTV cameras would go a long way to enhancing their ability to detect crime before it occurred. Furthermore, he said to ensure that visitors were safe this festive season, they had increased the deployment of police in various tourism sites and places of leisure along the beach.
He said there was also a significant increase in metro police deployed in the CBD to heighten visibility.
“Working with community crime fighting structures, we have identified crime hot spots in suburbs, township and rural communities and our law enforcement officers are already conducting intelligence-driven operations in these areas,” he said.
Kaunda said 23 of the city’s 27 bathing beaches were open.
“We are pleased to report that the contractor is on site at the Children’s Amusement Centre and we anticipate completing this R37 million project by December 15, in time for the Festive Season. We are finalising the recruitment of seasonal workers who will be deployed in all our beaches. These include child-minders, lifeguards and waste pickers,” said Kaunda.
Kaunda said the water and sanitation teams were constantly monitoring the performance of coastal pump stations.
He said they had also finalised the procurement processes attached to the second tranche of the storm disaster grant received from the national government.
“Contractors are already on the ground, and we are confident that they will complete these projects quickly,” he said.
The president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Prasheen Maharaj, thanked the mayor for involving the private sector to plan jointly with them to have a bumper tourist season for Durban.
“As the private sector, as the tourism sector we cannot afford not to have a bumper festive season,” he said.
Maharaj said a panel had been appointed to deal with sewage leaks.
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