Next time you brave the freezing waters at Blouberg beach you might have to watch your language, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Cape Town’s beaches have become battlegrounds for various issues over the last two years.

That showdown between security and protesters on Clifton Beach earlier this year comes to mind, and Hout Bay residents were also divided over a law banning dogs from the beach.

All of these scuffles have contributed to the new by-law proposed by the City of Cape Town that wants to put a few new beach-going regulations in place, including a ban on swearing.

News24 has the lowdown:

People who are outraged by the City of Cape Town’s proposal to ban swearing on beaches have until September 2 to oppose this and a raft of other possible by-laws intended to protect the coastline and all who use it.

This is after the City of Cape Town’s 17-page Draft Coastal By-Law caused an uproar with the proposal that no person may in the coastal zone “use foul or indecent language”.

Yeah, that’s not going to work for me, so…

There were many “tseks!” (go away) among the politer responses to the proposal, while others quipped that they may as well also pack bail money in the cooler box.

But the city’s Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment Marian Nieuwoudt said a key emphasis of the draft Coastal By-law is to ensure that the public’s right of access to, and use of beaches as public spaces, is entrenched and protected as a fundamental public right in perpetuity.

Sure, but I don’t understand how swearing fits into all of that.

Let’s look at some of the other wide-ranging proposals in the document:

• The proposed banning of slaughtering (livestock) on the beach without permission
• A ban on bringing glass containers to the beach
• No dumping
• A ban on beach house owners preventing access to beaches in front of their properties via signage or erecting “defences”
• No fires or fireworks without permission, and no Chinese lanterns
• No beach sleep overs, and no vendors, unless permission is granted
• No littering an along the coastal zone, nor interference with or causing damage to wild animals or plants.

I’m here for a lot of these, especially the last one. This isn’t everything that’s on the table, though – read the full proposal here.

If you want to voice your opinion you can do so online, or at one of the remaining public hearings:

• August 24 from 10AM to 12PM at the Khayelitsha Training Centre on the corner of Lwandle Street and Phendula Crescent.
• August 27 from 7PM to 9PM at the Strand Subcouncil Chambers on the corner of Fagan Street and Main Road.

Like I said – I’m all about protecting the fauna and flora, but when it comes to regulating my speech, that bill can f*** right off.

[source:news24]