Entering Bela-Bela as a tourist or even first-time visitor, many used to gasp at the sheer beauty of the grass-thatched Waterfront complex.
At the time of writing this piece, I was still to engage the reporters as to which angle to take in terms of this dramatic modern-day Shakespearean tragedy.
Within hardly a couple of months, parts of the Waterfront have once again gone up in flames.
The face of the tourist hamlet of Bela-Bela — your face, too — has oh so suddenly collapsed almost into the belly of the earth.
As the average Joe Citizen, you may feel like the destruction has nothing to do with you. Right?
A big wrong!
The aftermath of the inferno at the Waterfront should affect all of us, black or white, poor or middle class, working class or wealthy.
From time to time holidaymakers hauling caravans from the metropolitan south take a slow drive through the town on their way to Modimolle and beyond, only to be blown away by the splendour of the thatch character of the Waterfront.
You can bet your last dime that many of these moneyed classes did stop over at the Waterfront to take in the situation, and also inquire about a future visit to Bela-Bela as a tourist
destination.
These lone enquiries had the potential to translate into a flood of holidaymakers planning to spend time at the lodges in Bela-Bela and local hotels.
Simply because of that stop-over at the Waterfront, these tourists had the potential to increase bookings at the lodges, which would naturally be nudged into taking in additional workers,
especially from the local township.
On a somewhat similar vein, it has been a busy week for Bela-Bela as a tourist destination.
Just last weekend modern-day Afrikaner nationalists, AfriForum, held a summit at Klein-Kariba.
What caught my attention was the full-length interview by eNCA had with AfriForum CEO, Kallie Kriel, on primetime TV news, for that matter.
The eNCA made it abundantly clear that Kriel was being interviewed at a lodge in Bela-Bela.
Last weekend’s front page of The BEAT was based on a nyaope drug addict coming clean about his bad ways, daring other victims to fight the habit.
The front page design by Leslie Barnard, with me breathing on his neck, was a work of sheer artistic excellence, commended by many readers.
Writing before engaging the reporters, I would really like them to look at the impact on jobs, as a rippling effect of the fire at the Waterfront.
The threat to jobs in question include individual business tenants, many of whom have lost almost everything from the devastating tongues of flames.
As a small community, the residents of the small town of Bela-Bela should close ranks and pray for the best, especially in terms of the effect on the local economy.
Our sister publication, Die Pos, has committed to find out how members of the community could assist in terms of the mopping up operations, and the losses incurred by employers.
In the same breadth, we at The BEAT send out this clarion call to communities to offer whatever support they can, to those who have to wait as the jobs situation is being assessed.
— The BEAT
