Rubbish that filled three trucks, totalling 16 tonnes, was cleared out of Camps Bay by local organisations on Monday, 4 December. The Camps Bay Community Police Forum, which organised the clean-up, says that most of the rubbish was collected on council property."The question it raises is why these areas are not being cleaned regularly - is it merely out of sight, out of mind, or is it just that services are slipping in general?" asks Bernard Schäfer, chairperson of the Camps Bay CPF.
The operation also saw 12 vagrants being moved to various shelters. These 12 were vagrants who agreed to being relocated, while a number refused to leave.
In addition to the CPF, organisations involved in the operation were Bay Response, ADT, the SA Police Service, Law Enforcement, Metro Police, City of Cape Town Solid Waste Department, as well as the Cape Town Central City Improvement District. Three trucks - a 10 tonne, five tonne and a one tonner - were filled with rubbish.
Almost two-thirds of the Camps Bay precinct was covered, from the Camps Bay Police Station to Clifton Third Beach, as well as the area around Kloof Street, Camps Bay High, Central Drive and the preparatory school and crèche.
"The operation was organised in an attempt to kick-start the Camps Bay SAPS, other law enforcement bodies and the council into regularly undertaking exercises of this nature.
"It is necessary to properly cleanse what is fast becoming a dirty embarrassment to one of the best tourist attractions in the world," Schäfer says.
Derek Bock, chief operations officer of the Cape Town Central CID, says they were happy to help out as it shows the value of a CID.
"We will support anyone, from Camps Bay to Woodstock, who is battling with crime-related issues because we are closely affiliated with the Cape Town CPF, so we understand the situation."
Atlantic Seaboard Councillor JP Smith concedes that council's cleansing resources have not been sufficient, with an "inadequate" budget this year.
However, he hopes that next year?s budget will be more promising.
Smith says, though, that the beach is cleaned mechanically quite frequently during the peak season, and areas surrounding the beach are cleaned as complaints are received.
"The problem is that, after such a clean-up, only days later it looks the way it used to and people then assume the job is not being done," he says.
Smith says that since Camps Bay does not have a city improvement district of its own, criminals and vagrants come from other areas to make themselves at home locally.
There is no regular, proactive action to prevent this. Schäfer says that vagrants and even workers on building sites are regularly using bushes near the beach for their ablutions. Certain building sites do not provide their workers with the necessary ablution facilities.
"No wonder Bakoven, Camps Bay and Clifton beaches made headline news recently because of unacceptable e-coli levels being recorded consistently during routine council water testing."
The City of Cape Town stated in November that it would be erecting signs at local beaches to warn water-users of the abnormally high e-coli levels in the water.
Schäfer fears that the erection of such signs could cost beaches such as Clifton Fourth their Blue Flag status.
Abdulla Parker, head of the city catchment planning department with jurisdiction over the Atlantic Seaboard, says that 15 signs will be erected in the area by the end of the week.
Chris Willemse, chairperson of the Camps Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association, says residents of Camps Bay should be thankful to the CPF, as the clean-up project they held was "an incredibly worthwhile" operation.
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