Dear festive season guest – look out! Buffalo City’s Eastern Beach sinkholes are giving new meaning to the term “tourist trap”.
Our Esplanade is incredible and is cleaned daily by a team paid for by beachfront businesses and organised and supported by the Quigney Ratepayers and Residents Association.
But one stretch of walkway along Eastern Beach is a blind spot, shot through with sinkholes big enough to swallow an unsuspecting stroller.
Even worse, with poverty and marginalisation so extreme, homeless people, drug users, and criminal scavengers are living in those holes.
And there are allegations that, like ghouls, these miscreants leap from these holes and mug people.
With the festive season only weeks away, a Go! team went to investigate.
Police say it’s not true – at least over the last three months, but this is not what residents say.
Police spokesperson Captain Hazel Mqala said: “There are no cases that have been opened or reported [regarding the paving area] for the past three months. If there are incidents that took place, they were not reported.”
Quigney residents say that for three years the sinkholes in the vintage paving along the Eastern Beach section have been getting bigger, deeper and more dangerous.
They say they have waited, and asked, and waited for the Buffalo City Metro (BCM) to do something.
Residents say the “caves” have become dens for predator thieves.
Residents have been beating the drum on social media, demanding repair, and at the very least, cordoning off of the disaster area with warning tape and bollards.
Despite official acknowledgement, nothing has been done, they say.
BCM’s Bongani Fuzile responded: “The metro is aware of infrastructure degradation including sinkholes and abandoned buildings, particularly in areas such as Quigney. These spaces pose both safety and public health risks. BCM recognises the importance of balancing law enforcement with human rights and social development imperatives.
“BCM is committed to working with civil society and residents to develop sustainable, compassionate, and practical solutions to the issues facing our communities. We thank the Go! for highlighting these challenges and reaffirm our dedication to transparency and collaboration.”
Residents warn that the problem will worsen as festive season visitors flock to Eastern Beach, and partying revelers render themselves vulnerable.
Residents say the muggers that use these pits as hiding holes are merciless.
They “attack without conscience” said one person who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted. A hawker who works the Esplanade strip says it is “a nightmare, so dangerous”.
“While I was dealing with customers, I saw a man from Mdantsane being attacked by seven men who dragged him into one of the holes. They took his phone and clothes and beat him. They were ruthless.”
She watched as the drug-crazed thugs sadistically dragged him bleeding into the ocean and then back into their den in the broken paving.
“I pleaded with them to let me take him to hospital, and eventually they did,” she said, adding if she had stood by they likely would have killed him.
Quigney residents say the attacks are on the rise. Nobody is safe. Joggers, walkers, strollers, all are targets.
Andisa Vuma, 20, a student at John Knox Bokwe College, and a friend are regular Esplanade joggers. They said: “We do not feel safe. The first time I encountered the hole I was about to fall into it! The place is full of broken glass and litter. The municipality should clean it daily and provide security. It’s getting worse.”
