Jewel of the Wild Coast loses all its lustre
HOLIDAY hideaway Port St Johns, once known as the jewel of the Wild Coast, is now just wild.
Tourists, the main source of income for the poverty-stricken hamlet, are shunning it because the roads are bad, the water supply is poor, power is unreliable — and it was the site of a brutal murder last week.
There have been several riots in Port St Johns in the past few weeks and protestors blocked the only road into the town with burning tyres.
On Wednesday, a municipal worker was hacked to death in a clash between strikers and casual labourers.
Statistics South Africa puts unemployment in the Eastern Cape town at 50.3% and wages are low: 19.6% of residents have no income at all and 46% earn between R9 601 and R38 200 a year.
Employers, many of them resort owners, are worried about the future of the town of 156 000 people.
“We have had a number of cancellations, especially from South Africans who had heard on the news about what has been happening here,” said Neil Clayton, owner of Amapondo Backpackers.
“About 10 people have cancelled. We’ve lost in the region of R20 000.
“And that’s a conservative estimate, because it doesn’t take into account any tours they might have booked or what they would have spent at the bar.”
Clayton said the town centre was in “absolute disarray” because of the protests.
An attempted cleanup of the city centre yesterday by volunteers was cancelled “because it would be unsafe”, Clayton said.
John Costello, who heads the National Sea Rescue Institute base in Port St Johns and whose wife owns the Outspan Inn resort, said: “The town has collapsed.”
Residents had asked the South African Local Government Association to intervene because the town was “sick and tired” of the municipality’s failure to provide adequate services.
Costello said the Outspan Inn would close from December 17 until the first weekend of January — usually a busy time for Port St Johns.
“We cannot subject guests to a town that is filthy, where the roads are terrible and the beaches are so bad they could be a health hazard,” he said.
Another business owner, who did not want to be named, said visitor numbers had been dropping for some years, although the decrease had been most noticeable in the past two years.
“I lost nine guests who were due to stay for five days each. It’s a huge financial loss,” she said. “I have been here 15 years and the town is just going down.”
Municipal officials were not available for comment.