Plans forge ahead to get tourism back on track in Dundee

The Umzinyathi District Tourism Board has embarked on efforts to boost tourism following the Covid-19 epidemic, the July 2021 looting and now, the widespread flooding.
At a meeting held at the Umzinyathi District Municipality (UDM) offices last week, where representatives of all four municipalities under the district met, the Tourism Portfolio Committee held serious discussions on the way forward to bring tourism to Northern KwaZulu-Natal – and the challenges are many!
Firstly, water and sanitation infrastructure is outdated. The recent flooding brought this to the fore, with many areas suffering damage as a result of blocked drains caused by out-of-control littering in the central business districts of all towns.
Concern was also expressed about effluent running into local streams, like the Steenkoolspruit in Dundee, which in turn flows into the Buffalo River. The meeting heard that this impacts on both humans and livestock, and ends up ‘giving the area a bad name, which scares off tourists’.
The lack of maintenance has impacted hugely on roads – many of the routes to the battle sites (such as Blood River, Rorke’s Drift and Isandlwana) are gravel roads and become impassable after heavy rain.
In January, Umzinyathi Mayor Petros Ngubane made reference of SANRAL’s commitment to upgrade the road to Isandlwana and is awaiting feedback by the end of this month (February).
There are also hopes that the Transport Department will provide a detailed road plan for the district, where the deterioration of roads has increased dramatically.
However, again financial constraints remain a problem.