DEAR Editor,
Our extended family recently came to South Africa for a much-awaited holiday. Included in our party was our daughter-in-law from New Zealand on her first trip to Africa.
We are originally from Margate and emigrated some 19 years ago to New Zealand, so we were keen to show her the beautiful place we had lived in before.
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For the benefit of our daughter-in-law, we wanted her to experience as much of South Africa as possible in the five weeks we were there.
Our itinerary included the Drakensberg, Amanzimtoti and the upper South Coast, Durban, Umhlanga and surrounding areas, as well as a private game park in Ladysmith. Our final stopover before returning home was Cape Town – the highlight of our holiday.
For the Lower South Coast part of our holiday, we rented an apartment at Lucien Sands. We arrived in the latter part of the afternoon and bought some provisions at Shelly Centre.
The following morning, we woke to a glorious sunny day and decided to do a beach walk to Margate.
We were horrified at the state of the beach area near the Wimpy, which was littered with used condoms, chicken carcasses, broken bits of glass, paper, and general rubbish.
It was most embarrassing for my daughter-in-law to witness this scene, as just earlier I commented on what a stunning beach this was with its blue flag status.
After this, we took the grandchildren (one aged three and the other 18 months) to the public pool opposite the Information Centre.
This too was such a disappointment – surrounded by fencing, which detracted from what could have been a stunning open view to the beach. The pool generally looked rundown and uncared for. The Information Centre was in bad need of a bit of paint or a makeover.
After this we walked along the area where the informal traders are set up to buy some gifts to take home. The area reeked of urine and was most off-putting.
We walked along the pathway to the old fishing pier to take in the lovely sea views, but again, we were horrified at the amount of rubbish strewn along the walkway, as well as many of the wooden barriers being either missing, or broken.
My wife suggested we walk into the town from there, which we did, only to be terribly disappointed by the general state of decay!
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Margate was once was a bustling, clean and tidy town, but now there were many empty shops, large sections of missing pavement blocks and, to be honest, we felt unsafe with some unsavoury characters loitering.
That evening we decided to have a meal at the Shelly Centre and noticed that all street lights from Manaba to Uvongo were not working. The old Uvongo bridge is in desperate need of maintenance as well and all these things sadly depict the general decay of this area.
During our stay we visited the Waffle House, where the owners told us that they (at their own cost) paid to have their parking area tar sealed. We took a drive to Port Edward and visited the Mac Banana estate where we had a lovely lunch.
However, the old road through Ramsgate is full of potholes, many of them filled with stones and plastic bags and it’s a sorry sight for an overseas visitor to see.
Quite a few of the shop owners at Shelly Centre told us that business in general is not as good anymore due to the decrease in visitor numbers.
After leaving Margate (with much disappointment in what it once used to be) we headed for our hotel at Umhlanga Rocks. What a difference. We were confronted by a thriving, bustling, and well-maintained CBD area, a stunningly well-maintained beachfront, where you could safely walk, busy shops, and so on.
Margate, in my opinion, has such incredible potential to be a tourist hub again. If only the powers that be would realise that tourism generates income and provides many jobs.
But, in order to get the tourists back there, the whole area and its infrastructure needs to be restored and maintained.
We are planning a huge family reunion in the next few years in South Africa, which will include more family members from New Zealand, but we are hesitant to include Margate on our itinerary because of our recent experience.
DENNIS AND MERLE KLOPPER
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