Cape Town — The eThekwini Municipality has temporarily closed two beaches in Umhlanga after two unidentified brown substances, suspected to be either dog or human faeces, were discovered on the sand.
City spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said officials became aware of the issue after videos circulated on social media.
As a precaution, Umhlanga Main Beach and Bronze Beach were closed while the city’s water and sanitation unit analyzes the samples, TimesLIVE reported.
“We cannot confirm if the balls are human waste until after the laboratory investigation. We caution media against reporting unverified information. The city has always been transparent about issues relating to beach water quality, hence an investigation is under way to trace the source of the ‘balls’ and get to the bottom of the matter,” Sisilana said.
According to IOL, Sisilana also addressed reports of E.coli at the beaches, cautioning the media against the spread of unverified claims.
“The department is aware of the situation and teams are going to investigate its origins and also clear them from the shore,” Singh said.
According to The Citizen, eThekwini has not applied for Blue Flag status accreditation in several years due to its failure to meet water quality standards since 2021. A beach’s Blue Flag status is determined by water quality, specifically the E. coli concentration at various points along the shoreline.
This is measured by the number of colony-forming units (CFU) per 100 millilitres of water. A count below 150 CFU is considered good, while anything above 500 CFU is deemed poor, often resulting in beach closures.
In December 2024, eThekwini stated that 21 of its beaches were declared safe for swimming.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
