Durban sea bacteria and possible rhino disappearance dims tourism’s jewel

The once iconic luxury Blue Train’s fairy-tale reputation has gone off the rails and turned into a nightmare for the
tourism industry after the temporary closure of the operation, with immediate effect.

The collapse of one of the “crown jewels” of SA tourism comes on the heels of recent reports suggesting rhinos may disappear from the Kruger National Park in less than five years because of poaching – and advice for tourists to Durban not to swim in the sea because of the presence of E. coli bacteria from sewage.

A similar problem has led for calls for the cancellation of the Duzi Canoe Marathon, an important sporting event and tourist attraction in KwaZulu-Natal. Sean Bradley, chief business development officer at Travelwingz, part of a large global group which facilitates tourism to and from South Africa, said: “This is a crown jewel that’s been mothballed. Another one. It’s the same as losing the apartheid museum [which closed last year].”

He noted with concern the reports about rhino poaching and said: “If we lost the animal as part of the iconic big five, why would people want to come to South Africa?

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“What is the next crown jewel to actually go? Where is government,” Bradley asked. Tourism Business Council
of South Africa CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said it was sad to see the infrastructure of the trains was not well kept.

“It’s sad to see that issues around the rail infrastructure have caused the Blue Train to temporarily stop services,”
Tshivhengwa said.

“It’s one of those things that are important. Our railway infrastructure has to improve for the Blue Train to come back and contribute to the tourism industry.”

Tshivhengwa said more needed to be done. “Not just for the Blue Train, but the other trains as well. The Blue Train offers an experience but we need to make sure other trains that offer transportation were running because it was also part of tourism,” he said.

The Blue Train was billed by Transnet as “A window to the soul of Africa” and attracted locals and international tourists on a 31-hour scenic train ride over 1 600km from Pretoria to Cape Town.

However, long-standing problems as far back as 2005, when the iconic train was involved in a head-on collision with another train, piled up. Last week a suspect was arrested after allegedly setting fire to one of the Blue Train coaches, which was damaged when it derailed in November and was being repaired.

Transnet’s weekly statistics indicated 133 incidents of cable theft were reported between 4 and 11 February, which resulted in 43 102 metres of cable lost in a week. Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi confirmed the immediate temporary closure of the train for “a thorough technical assessment”.

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Shezi said once the assessment concluded, the train would return to service. The United National Transport Union’s spokesperson, Sonja Carstens, said it commended Transnet for making the difficult decision of taking the world-famous train out of operation.

“It wasn’t an easy decision because the Blue Train will always be considered the flagship of Transnet and it was making money,” she said. Carstens said the financial loss of R8.3 billion in the 2020-2021 financial year was another blow for Transnet.

Democratic Alliance shadow minister for tourism Manual de Freitas said the problem was greater than just cable theft.

“Cable theft is happening simply because the government is not doing its basic responsibility.”

De Freitas said Transnet’s infrastructure was being decimated day by day because it was not looked after.
Bradley said that the damage being done to the tourism industry because of government inaction and incompetence was devastating, because tourism was a major creator of jobs.

“We cannot afford to lose any of these employment creators.”

– news@citizen.co.za