KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) hotel occupancy rates hit an all-time high of 86% during the recent Heritage Day long weekend, leaving the sector feeling positive as the summer holiday season draws near.
The KZN tourism sector, which has been dealt a devastating blow since the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown, is beginning to see growth in accommodation occupancy levels with the past two long weekends showing a positive upward swing in the number of occupancies according to Tourism KZN.
Tourism KZN acting chief executive officer Phindile Makwakwa said: “Government and tourism trade partners have been working around the clock to turn the sector around over the past few months and we are delighted to see that the tides are finally turning to our favour and the numbers are showing positive growth. While the world, South Africa and KZN are not where we were before Covid19, the performance of the long weekend shows that our holidaymakers are slowly making their way back to KZN and we very pleased to have them back.”
Following the President Cyril Ramahosa’s announcement that South Africa has now moved to Alert Level One and the government’s aggressive vaccination drive, Tourism KZN is now setting its sights on the upcoming summer season. Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Ravi Pillay will launch the province’s summer tourism campaign in the coming weeks, to drive more domestic travellers into the province for the upcoming season.
Makwakwa welcomed the 2020 South African Tourism Annual Report which showed that KwaZulu-Natal was the number one domestic tourism destination in 2020, with 3.8 million trips followed by Gauteng at 2.8 million trips.
“We are thrilled that KZN is back in the number one spot again and the plan is to surpass the 2020 numbers this year. We believe we can achieve that looking at the work that we have done thus far. Our continued partnership with tourism trade is at the heart of this and our future success,” she said
Eskom announced that it would be implementing ‘load reduction’, which seems to be the new term now for load shedding, in some parts of the country from Thursday 7 October.
Eskom made the load reduction announcement via its official Twitter account and on its website at around 10pm on Wednesday night. Eskom said that it would be implementing “load reduction” in Mpumalanga province from 5am to 9am on Thursday morning and again between 5pm and 7pm in the evening.
“Overloading of the network can damage electricity infrastructure by raising explosions of transformers and mini-substations. Overloading also poses danger to people and property in the affected communities. Currently, Eskom is battling to keep up with the increased equipment failure cause by overloading that is costing millions to report,” Eskom said in the load reduction notice posted on Twitter.
“Eskom wishes to notify its customers in Mpumalanga province that it will implement load shedding reduction to precinct network overloading in affected areas,” Eskom said.
Click here to view the full list of areas that will be affected by Eskom’s load reduction in Mpumalanga for several hours during both the morning and evening of Thursday 7 October.
“Customers from the effected areas are encouraged not to log a fault during this period. Eskom urges customers to treat all installations as live during the interruption of power,” Eskom said in the statement.
Eskom further advised its customers to report any illegal activities on Eskom lines on the Eskom Crime Line number: 0800112722.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) recently rejected Eskom’s latest proposed electricity tariff increase, stating that it would seek input from affected stakeholders regarding the requested price hikes.
Nersa’s move against the parastatal’s latest price hike proposal follows several recent court battles between the two entities over the issue and comes as consumers have been battling to make ends meet as spiralling double digit electricity price hikes have driven up the cost of living in recent years.
Police Minister Bheki Cele was absolutely incandescent on Wednesday, after he delivered his response to the political controversy bubbling away in Phoenix, KZN. DA leader John Steenhuisen has defended his party’s posters in the region, which make reference to the July Riots – but this has boiled the blood of Mzansi’s top cop.
Bheki Cele and the DA have been bickering for years. The minister and the opposition do not see eye-to-eye, disagreeing on everything from lockdown policies to the hatted politician’s own competency. However, Cele has unashamedly cranked up the ongoing tensions, by branding Steenhuisen as a ‘brainless thug’.
That’s because the posters in Phoenix read; “The ANC calls you racists, the DA calls you heroes”.
At least 20 people were killed here when vigilantes clashed with looters. It was one of the most harrowing moments of South Africa’s democratic era – and the DA’s decision to steam-roller into Phoenix with such a divisive message has left political opponents spitting feathers. The reaction online has also been vicious…
It’s understood that the DA is on the verge of removing these offending posters, despite Steenhuisen’s best efforts to defend their purpose. He claims that the materials on display only refer to the residents of Phoenix who obeyed the law, but the damage has now been done – and this attempted intervention left Bheki Cele rattled:
“For him to put the extra salt of racism on this matter… I have always had doubts about Steenhuisen. I don’t have a doubt now, I am flabbergasted. To me, he is a thug, he is a political criminal that the nation must deal with as such, he has no conscious, he has no brains whatsoever – for him not to find a problem [with] what happened in Phoenix.”
[MUST WATCH] Following his continued efforts along with the Peace Committe to quell racial tensions in #Phoenix following the murder of 36 people in that area & injury to 50 in July, Police Minister General Bheki Cele reacts to the election posters erected in the neighbourhood. pic.twitter.com/YSbeX5G1Lf
— Lirandzu Themba (@LirandzuThemba) October 6, 2021
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has established a team that will focus its investigation work on the violence that has hit the Tshwane area, leading up to the local government elections.
This comes after the Police Ministry led two community engagements in a form of street izimbizo in Mamelodi and Mabopane. The Tshwane region has been identified as a hotspot for potential attacks and threats linked to political violence, as the country edges towards the 1 November local government elections.
During the street imbizo, community members had the opportunity to raise their concerns about local policing with Police Minister General Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale, Gauteng Community Safety and Liaison MEC,Faith Mazibuko and the SAPS management team from both the province and national departments.
The increase in contact and gender based violence related crimes were raised sharply by many of the residents, while some people also spoke out about their security concerns following the murder of a ward councillor in Mabopane.
Police Minister Bheki Cele assured residents that politicians using criminals to influence democratic processes would not be tolerated.
“There are people who want to be councillors, not on behalf of the people in the community but on behalf of criminal syndicates so that the thugs they serve can continue to terrorise and extort businesses in the area, there are also politicians who are trying to have their preferred candidates contest elections and believe using violence and intimidation tactics is going to work, it won’t. We are going hard on this phenomenon, the SAPS and the detective team that has been appointed will ensure that everyone who is involved in these crimes is dealt with accordingly,” Cele said.
Residents called on the police to bring services closer to them. A mobile police station in the Kopanong area has now been opened following the Imbizo. This station will service the growing informal settlement along with the existing police station in Mamelodi East.
In addition, Tactical Response Teams (TRT) teams have also been deployed as force multipliers in both Mamelodi, Mabopane and surrounding areas.