Three Children Still Not Reunited With Parents After Durban’s New Year’s Weekend

DURBAN – Ethekwini Municipality has requested that the parents of three children, left on Durban beaches during the New Year long weekend, urgently make contact with authorities to be reunited with their children.

Beaches were packed on 01 January 2018 and parents had been urged to make sure they took their child to a Child Minder for tagging. The tag includes the name of the child and contact details of the parent.

Over 44,033 arm bands were issued to children coming to the beach, the Ethekwini Municipality said in a press statement.

About 332 children were separated from their parents and 328 were re-united with their parents on New Year’s Day.

However four children had to be taken to the overnight facility and at present, three children are still in the custody of the Municipality’s Child Minders. Their parents are requested to make contact urgently with officials to be reunited with their children.

Proof of identity and relationship with the separated child is required. (Please see contact number below.)

The Municipality said it is happy to announce that it was an incident-free long weekend – with beaches packed to capacity – as law Enforcement Officers, Metro Police and the South African Police Services (SAPS) were out in full force to keep an eye on over 3,907,668 people who visited the stretch of beaches on the Ethekwini coastline from 29 December to 01 January 2018.

Malcolm Canham, Chairperson of the Festive Season Management Committee, said that even though there were large crowds, people were generally well behaved with no major incidents reported except for a few non-abiding members of public.

“The troublemakers were dealt with decisively and we issued over 860 warnings for drinking in public, fighting, illegal braais and bathing in restricted areas. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable on our beaches and we are clamping down such behaviour.

“A further 161 people were charged for unlicensed vehicles and parking in prohibited areas including motorcycle lanes and disabled parking bays. The swift response of our law enforcement officers also resulted in the arrest of 8 people for cellphone and handbag theft, and some were caught with drugs in their possession,” said Canham.

A total of 33 rescues were carried out and 2,662 people received first aid treatment for different medical reasons. This includes five people who were sent to hospital for incidents comprising near-drowning, arm dislocation and ankle sprain.

The contact number for the overnight facility at the Claire Ellis Brown Pre-Primary School is: 031 368 4119.

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View more Durban New Year Photos on Dawn Rouse’s blog.