Do you have a crew, do you have the gees?
The public has been asked to step in to clean up the once-beautiful coastal area near East London’s historic Grand Prix circuit and IDZ.
The call came from Border Motorsport Club chair Andrew Karshagen, who slogged his way for 5km with a group of 23 city environmentalists and residents along the beach and once-fabulous grassy hillocks on Saturday.
“If you have spare time and have a crew, come and join us and clean up the beach,” Karshagen said.
“It’s a minefield. We have a major problem with dumping at the race circuit and the beachfront.”
He urged the public to step in and join the cleanup effort.
“Take a little bit at a time,” he said.
The group, of protesters led by five DA councillors and supported by local environment group the Green Ripple, was horrified at how the coast had become a free-for-all dumpsite.
They were overwhelmed by the dreadful mangle of contractor dumps, car pieces, an upside-down bath, plastic and booze bottles galore, a few condom wrappers and a piece of industrial concertina piping, which was a hovel for a homeless person.
The group was protected by two Red Alert guards with dogs and a support vehicle, which was offered as a public community service.
The site has festered for a decade. On Saturday, it was worse than ever.
The cleanup group strolled from the Grand Prix circuit, led by DA BCM constituency leader Sue Bentley, with Green Ripple and Save Nahoon activist Kevin Harris and Karshagen.
The first stop, was a surfing, fishing and historic coastal picnic area, loosely known as Naidoo’s Point.
Under apartheid, when the area was classified as for “non-whites only” — and despite its lack of bathing beaches, it was nonetheless much loved by black residents.
On Saturday, the once-gorgeous little wind-mown grassy hillocks were one long pile of contractors’ rubble — ceiling boards, piping, smashed plaster and oddly, the book Library Orientation by Vink and Frylink.
The job, as the group toiled towards the tidal pool at Leaches Bay, was clearly beyond the scope of the bag-carrying residents, who still managed to fill about 30 bags.
In a sad commentary, one of the worst areas, a storm drainage outlet where the grasses were heavily dotted with empty plastic bottles, appeared to come from the East London Industrial Development Zone, whose boundary fence is about 150m away from the environmental disaster.
Harris said: “This is not acceptable that we have a beautiful coast that is quite clearly a convenient dumpsite for local household contractors, whoever it may be.
“It is shocking.”
Bentley told the group: “Each one of us, as we came over the rise (to see the ocean) couldn’t believe what we were seeing here. You have the absolute contrast of the most magnificent coastline and yet you have people who think it is acceptable to come and dump all kinds of rubbish here.”
She said a pin drop of the location where the bags of trash they collected were piled would be sent to metro officials. “I don’t believe they do know this is happening on their [watch].”
Harris said the guard company had expressed interest in providing further support for community-driven environmental initiatives, such as this event.
