On Tuesday, the DA lost its High Court battle to reopen beaches along the Garden Route.
In his latest address to the nation, President Ramaphosa announced that several beaches across the country will be closed over the festive season for fear of super-spreader events. Ramaphosa said all beaches along the Garden Route and in the Eastern Cape will be closed until 3 January. The Garden Route (a 300-kilometre stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa) relies heavily on the influx of tourists to their beaches over the festive period.
And it is upon the grounds that the closure of beaches will have devastating consequences for the tourism industry that the DA made its case for keeping the Garden Route beaches open.
“The Democratic Alliance notes the ex tempore judgment handed down by the Western Cape High Court regarding our case to overrule the closure of the Garden Route’s beaches as well as challenging the irrationality of the time restrictions on beaches,” DA Leader John Steenhuisen said, as reported by EWN. “While we are disappointed by the ruling in favour of the beach closures, we welcome the amended hours of beach operation which we’ve managed to get changed from 6am to 6pm.”
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