cape town's gay nude beach has been clothing optional for decades. now the signs say the drones are watching.
via EWN, the Cape Argus and MambaOnline.
You have to want to get to Sandy Bay. It is a walk from the car park, down past the rocks south of Llandudno, and for decades the reward has been a beach where nobody much cared what you were wearing. Now the path has signs.
They read, per EWN: "No nudity and/or sexual misconduct in any public space, including the beaches and pathways." They cite fines under Section 19 of the Sexual Offences Act and warn that the area is under surveillance, including by drones. The Cape Argus and MambaOnline both report the signs were paid for by the Llandudno CID and Kronenzicht residents, which is to say by the neighbors.
is sandy bay a nudist beach?
Officially, no, and it never was. SANParks told the Argus that Sandy Bay, which sits inside Table Mountain National Park, "is not, and has not been, formally designated as a naturist beach." Unofficially, it has been the city's nude beach for as long as anyone can remember, and the Argus notes the City of Cape Town itself once described it as the "unofficial nudist beach." MambaOnline, South Africa's queer outlet, puts it in context: a queer space since the 1970s and one of the best known gay-friendly beaches in the world.
what the naturists want
Naturist advocate Marthinus Pretorius, writing to the authorities for the South African and Western Cape naturist associations, says they support action against sexual misconduct and crime, just not a blanket ban on bodies. "We are asking them to explain their legal position and talk to us before enforcing," he said, as quoted by both the Argus and EWN. A resident who backs the signs told EWN her problem was what happens in the dunes: "It's got nothing to do with happy people frolicking around Sandy Bay."
Fair enough on the dunes. But a drone over a nude beach is a genuinely new way to solve the problem of people looking at naked men, and we would like to meet whoever is volunteering to fly it.
