DEAR Editor,-
This letter is from one of those despised Vaalies who frequent your part of the world during the school holidays.
We spent a week in a private home in Pumula last week and were amazed at the deterioration taking place every time we visit. Unfortunately for the locals, it is probably caused by the N2 from Durban, which causes most traffic to bypass small towns along the South Coast.
I am sure that as a result many businesses have suffered and closed, which is why there is a limited number of decent restaurants and shops for travellers to use.
We had to buy groceries from a certain supermarket north of Port Shepstone, because it was the closest to Pumula. What a shock we got! So much so that I wrote to the head office in Johannesburg. What was disturbing was the fact that we realised that whilst we were passing through, locals have to shop in these places every week.
What a shock foreign tourists staying at the Pumula Hotel would get if they tried using the toilet at Voetplaat beach, where the water has been running on the floor for the entire week, and those at the main beach are no better, to say nothing of the professionalism of the current lifesavers. What we saw one day was diabolical.
As we drove along the old coast road from Scottburgh to Port Shepstone and passed thought the small towns, it was very obvious that there is very little new development and the old buildings are getting older and less attractive to travellers. It is as if all these towns, instead of improving, are becoming more rural.
So, whilst we will continue to frequent the South Coast and spend our modest few rands there, I am afraid that unless the South Coast improves a lot in the years to come, the dreaded Vaalies will choose to spend their money elsewhere. It is a great pity because the South Coast was such a lovely place to visit with all the small towns having something to offer, but this was decades ago.
IAN BARRY
