Nudism in full swing in KZN as opposition backs down



Ratepayers opposed to the nudist beach in KwaZulu-Natal appear to be backing down. After bringing in police to arrest nudists when the province's first legal nudist beach opened in April, threatening to lodge a complaint with the public protector and appeal to the Hibiscus Coast Municipality to change its approval, the opposition group has "vanished".The Concerned Citizens Group, which claimed to represent thousands of residents in towns along the province's South Coast, has not "put a stop" to the nudist beach, as it had planned to do.Instead, nudists from all over the country have been visiting the beach since the Easter weekend."It seems as if all those who were opposing the beach have ridden into the sunset," said SA National Naturists Association chairman Serge Pavlovic yesterday.The group's spokesman, the Rev Mike Effanga, could not be reached for comment.Residents living near the beach were divided last year when the association made an application for the 250m stretch of sand to be legally declared a nudist beach.Some did not want "drooping boobs and buttocks" on their beach, and others wanted to bare it all without fear.The municipality made the declaration in November.The association had planned to officially launch the nudist beach with "festivities".But Pavlovic yesterday said there would be no official launch."People have already been going there. The numbers are not so high at the moment because it is winter but naturists have already adopted the beach as a place of interest so that's the status quo," he said. He admitted that teething problems included crime on the beach.