WHAT a treat – sitting at a restaurant overlooking Margate beach, watching the world go by.
Wozani Africa’s Vicky Wentzel aptly refers to Margate as the ‘Eiffel Tower’ of the South Coast. In other words, no matter where you park your Venter trailer along about 100km of southern coastline, Margate is a ‘must visit’ at some stage.
Granted, there is still much to be done to get our ‘Tour Eiffel’ shipshape for the festive season, but it is still an iconic holiday destination of which many millions of inland holiday people will have fond memories.
Yes, the Olympic pool stands empty, the old funfair is gone (leaving an ugly scar) and hooligans have wrecked the deck for whale watching.
But much of the rest is purely cosmetic and Ray Nkonyeni Municipality has assured us that it will do everything possible (and within the budget) to spruce things up.
Surprisingly, there was a real buzz on Tuesday afternoon this week, in spite of the cool weather and intermittent drizzle.
A few taxi loads of Eastern Cape schoolchildren were on tour. The younger ones were splashing about merrily in the kiddies’ pool while the teenagers frolicked in the surf, all under the watchful eye of teachers and lifeguards.
It was good to see the youngsters thoroughly enjoying themselves and, no doubt, they too will leave with fond memories of ‘Margate-by-the-ulwandle’. Then, when they grow up, have kids and look for a family holiday destination, hopefully Margate will be top-of-mind.
Ward Councillor Dave Watson took to social media recently to bemoan the fact that all things bad seem to be lumped on poor old Margate, whether warranted or not. One has to agree that he makes a good point.
We all know what’s wrong by now – after countless Herald headlines – so there’s no real point in harping on about spilled milk any longer. If the powers-that-be haven’t taken note by now, they never will. (However, we are assured that they have.)
So now the Herald’s ‘crusade’ is to punt our Eiffel Tower as much as we can, building up to what we hope will be the season-of-all-seasons.
Not that we will turn a blind eye to something bad that is obviously newsworthy and in the public interest, but it is our goal to help turn a negative into a positive. After all, we are ‘locals’ and our own prosperity is also at stake. So for now, Margate is ‘magic’ in any language.
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