Durban has lost pulse that throbs with excitement at its great events

JUNE and July normally herald the winter school holidays and it is a time when the circus comes to town.

It is also a time when Durban is usually abuzz with two mega events in the form of Africa’s richest horse race, the Durban July, and the world famous ultra marathon, the Comrades Marathon.

There is an electric and galvanic pulse that throbs through Durban as the excitement for these events reaches fever pitch.

Add to that the arrival of the greatest shoal on Earth, and Durban is certainly the place to be.

But not this year! The novel coronavirus beat the sardines in arriving on our shores.

Now the Comrades has been cancelled and the July will be run at the Greyville Racecourse without spectators.

Our children are going back to school when they should be on a winter break.

The atmosphere will never be the same. Who can blame us for wallowing in a pervasive sense that the best times have come and gone, never to return?

I watched a Bayern Munich football match last week being played in an empty stadium.

The game seemed less of a contest and more of an act of just passing the ball around.

A matador can find no glory when the bull refuses to lunge for the red

muleta because there is no cheering or jeering crowds to spur him on.

The same applies to other sporting codes. The hospitality industry in South Africa is in big trouble because of this pandemic.

From a turbulent national airline, to a bankrupt rail system and half-full mini-bus taxis, our transport systems are in shambles.

It is pucker time for resorts, hotels and casinos as they peenge to rid themselves of the purdah they find themselves in. The Durban July, which normally generates millions for the local economy, is the latest victim.

With its lollapalooza charm, it adds an indefinable je nai sais quoi to the Durban tourism calendar.

The event is a must for socialites and aesthetic mainstreamers.

To run the event in an empty racecourse is, of course, beyond comprehension and unimaginable.

How will betting work for the “big day”?

As with the norm of technology, everything will be online.

All you need is a bank account and a smartphone and transactions will flow each way. It will, however, be a sad day for fashion designers as the two-legged fillies will be denied the dishabille strutting they have become accustomed to.

There will be no bookies’ rooms or punters’ betting houses open to gamblers. However, they can sit at home with their favourite tipple and sardine bites and watch the race being run on TV. Many will feel incongruous but this is the reality of the situation.

Cinema, too, is suffering globally with big losses of Hollywood and Bollywood cinema in India and South Africa. It also brought back melancholic memories of earlier days when we had the drive-in entertainment.

There is a domino-effect collapse to a plethora of ancillary markets and service providers with these non-events.

The logistics list is never-ending but must include media, hospitality (food, drink, accommodation and travel), event planners, transport, security services and so on.

Even bigger losses are suffered by sponsors. But the biggest losers are the city’s people who are the pulse of these events.