Lake St Lucia well on the mend
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You will have to wait a while longer before you can legally removed you clothes on the beach.
Naturists hoping to strip off and spend the Christmas holidays chilling naked on the beach at Mpenjati are in for a disappointment.
Nudity on this or any other Ray Nkonyeni Municipality beach will not be allowed this season.
According to press reports, deputy public protector Kevin Malunga visited Mpenjati with Ray Nkonyeni Municipality officials and interested groups recently.
However, the public protector is still to make a decision regarding the granting of nude beach status to the 500m stretch of beach adjoining Mpenjati Nature Reserve.
An announcement regarding this issue is expected early next year. Until then, the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality will enforce bylaws pertaining to nudity on public beaches at Mpenjati and all other beaches in this area.
Controversy has raged over the naturists’ beach issue ever since the then Hibiscus Coast Municipality granted Mpenjati a temporary nude beach status two years ago. The municipality reversed this decision after a number of church and interest groups expressed their displeasure.
KwaZulu-Natal Naturist Association spokesman John Skene has always claimed that a nude beach on the South Coast would be a major tourist attraction, benefiting the local tourism industry.
However, the vociferous Concerned Citizens’ Group, comprising members of local churches, has actively campaigned against it on moral grounds.While conservationists have not protested again a nude beach as such, they have said Mpenjati would be the wrong place for it.
They were against the nudists’ beach being situated on a stretch of pristine shoreline in adjoining an Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife nature reserve that was a popular destination for local families. They have also pointed out that the nude beach would fall within the Trafalgar Marine Protected Areas, designed to protect the marine environment and to educate the public about marine environmental issues.
Turning a section of a Marine Protected Area into a nude beach would be counter-productive to this educational function, particularly with regards to educational programmes for children.