EDITOR – Over this past weekend I had visited Gateway and had to wonder whether I was in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
I had always boasted that this mall is the most upmarket mall that I've ever visited, having travelled extensively abroad and believed it to be comparable and even better than most that I've ever visited.
But alas I was wrong. I had encounters with at least eight beggars, all of whom were operating inside the mall and some unpleasant encounters on Palm Boulevard with some very sleazy young untidy looking female propositioned me. As many beggars inside the mall there were an equal number on the Boulevard as well. It was an pretty unpleasant experience.
I'm quite sure that the other patrons, some of whom appeared to be foreigners and others from Gauteng and further afield would take home this poor experience with the belief that confirms our third world status.
The sad reality is that there many security officials on duty and right under their very noses beggars are allowed to come right to you whilst you are eating at a restaurant.
To add insult to injury one has to walk past the restaurant, “Cape Town Fish Market” and get this unpleasant smell of fish all along the corridor – the smell that one would get when visiting the Victoria Street Fish Market.
Its time for the management of Gateway wake up to these concerns and clean up the complex as well as the Boulevard precinct of vagrants, beggars and prostitutes which to me reflects as an indictment on their ability to manage this multi-billion rand centre.
Disgusted Patron
Durban
