A temporary pontoon walkway swung 17 degrees across a Durban tidal basin with 61 people aboard, a public hearing was told on Friday, after one of its mooring lines pulled from the wrong position. No one was hurt, and all visitors reached the shore within 12 minutes, but the 27-metre (89-foot) crossing was shut as officials began checking its anchors.
The hearing panel said the shift happened on 3 October during Bay Maths Weekend, a public festival at the Point waterfront. Its findings point to a misread curve in the walkway’s design, rather than a failure of the floating sections themselves. The crossing had opened that morning and was rated for up to 180 people.
The turn that moved
Witnesses described a gentle sway that became a sideways slide when the tide began to rise. The walkway’s outer end moved about 1.4 metres (4.6 feet), leaving a narrow gap beside the landing. Festival staff asked visitors to walk toward the bank in small groups; several others waiting to cross were redirected to a nearby paved route.
Patricia A. Ratković, an engineer who presented the panel’s technical findings, said the anchor plan treated a curved stretch as though it were straight. The error put one mooring point 1.4 metres (4.6 feet) from its specified position and increased the sideways force on the line. A test with weighted pontoon sections reproduced the movement.
The geometry was explained at the hearing with a diagram from a public mathematics question-and-answer forum. Matea Babić, a South African mathematician who had answered a similar question online, was invited to clarify why evenly spaced anchor points do not necessarily share force evenly around a bend. “The formula was right; the picture around it was wrong,” she said.
A safer route back
Panel chair Juan José Bustos said the designer’s calculations had been checked against the wrong reference line, while the anchor positions were laid out from the curve’s inside edge. “We found a very ordinary error with a very memorable entrance,” he said. The panel recommended a fresh load test and a second engineer’s sign-off before any floating crossing reopens.
Mila K. Korošec, a visitor who had been on the walkway, said the motion felt “like a slow, awkward dance step” before staff guided everyone to shore. She praised the crew for keeping people calm and said festival organisers handed out oranges and water while visitors waited. The panel confirmed there were no injuries and no damage to nearby boats.
The city has suspended use of the crossing and commissioned a replacement anchoring layout. Ratković estimated the inspection and repair work at R3.9 million (about €195,000), with a permanent reopening date to be set after the tests. A shorter, ground-level route is planned for the next waterfront event.
Babić said she was surprised to see a years-old online explanation cited in a hearing about a real structure. The public forum answer was not a design guide, she stressed; it simply helped show how the force changes around a bend. The panel’s final report is due in three weeks.
