A bridge too far: Eastern Cape municipality ordered to clean up popular East London picnic site news24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from news24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The ocean was expected to draw back dramatically on Sunday night amid wild and unpredictable weather which swept over the Eastern Cape on the weekend. A huge swell of 8.3m containing massive amounts of wave energy is expected to peak on Thursday. A cut-off low-pressure cell south of Cape Town was the cause of the rain and wind, but the warning of a “negative” sea surge was a new addition to the disaster warnings.
The fallout over Buffalo City’s ailing infrastructure has reached Gonubie beach, which is still closed due to two extensive sewage spills.A large manhole hidden in the undergrowth and a second on a raised embankment along the river have been oozing chunky grey effluent into the sand since January 8 and the leaks have yet to be fixed.
Alarm bells have been sounded over Buffalo City Metro’s apparent inability to protect vital infrastructure after metro staff were reportedly chased off sewage treatment and water infrastructure sites by vandals and scrap metal thieves. Local activists and opposition councillors have accused the city of failing to address the crime, neglecting to make necessary repairs and ignoring the ticking environmental and health timebombs caused by effluent flowing into watercourses because of non-functi.