This is going to be a very strange Christmas, following a very unusual year.
The year started on a bum note, with the Tongaat Hulett sugar company, by far the biggest employer in the region, first shutting down its Darnall mill, then following up with shedding 5 000 jobs as “accounting irregularities” were uncovered.
The good news is that new CEO Gavin Hudson appears to be cleaning up the mess and the company will likely rise again.
There was also much anger over uncontrolled drinking and bad behaviour on Ballito beachfront during season, with ratepayers saying Saps and municipal peace officers should be enforcing the law.
March introduced the word Covid-19 or coronavirus, and the whole world embarked on a journey of discovery, learning, confusion, anger and economic depression.
We all learned to wear masks, wash our hands frequently and keep a distance from our fellows. It was once inconceivable that you could enter a shopping mall or bank wearing a mask without everyone hitting the deck, now it is compulsory!
As more than 2 million jobs were lost countrywide and promised government aid failed to materialise, better-off communities sprang into action and produced a river of soup, food and assistance to those most affected, through local charity organisations.
The Ashton College “Families who Care” initiative raised nearly R2 million for food.
Salt Rock and world champion paddler Hank McGregor was inducted into the SA Hall of Fame, then tragedy struck when top canoeist Mark Perrow was killed in a light aircraft crash.
Fellow canoeist Quinton Rutherford honoured Perrow with a new Guinness world record by paddling a surf ski 227 kilometres from Cape Vidal to Ballito.
The world played a quick catchup on how to work and play online, with online exercise classes all the rage. Frustrated runners pounded their gardens flat.
Resident Sandra Taylor completed the 56km Two Oceans marathon running ’round and ’round her backyard.
Later many runners took part in a symbolic ‘virtual Comrades’ of various distances.
Dolphins Isaac Maleletoa, Gary Henwood-Fox and Andrew Erasmus completed the full 90km for their medals.
Some schools were successful in setting up online classes while others simply did not have the resources.
The impression I have is that teachers running online classes were extremely pressured, keen students thrived and those who were inclined to skive anyway, had a double helping.
One teacher was impressed to receive a call from a father who said he had caught his child cheating in an exam and he should get zero marks.
On the upside, many families enjoyed the enforced time together and embraced gardening, cooking and hobbies such as bird- and butterfly-watching in their backyards.
World leaders claimed to be basing their decisions on “the science”, but that same science kept changing.
The local decision to ban cigarette and alcohol sales caused widespread fury, and created a thriving black market.
Ballito experienced one murder, when 6-year-old Alexia Nyamadzawo was strangled, allegedly by her mother who is now undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
Former KDM mayor Ricardo Mthembu died of Covid complications. After a protracted power struggle within the ANC, Cllr Dolly Govender became the region’s first lady mayor.
KDM cops hit national headlines by arresting a group of people, apparently on the beach in contravention of lockdown regs, in the process being videoed manhandling a 4-year-old boy.
The prosecutor saw sense and dropped the charges.
On a lighter note, a cruise ship moored off Ballito for the duration was “adopted” by the community.
One night the town flicked lights on and off while the MSC Orchestra sounded its horn in salute.
The “Jerusalema Dance Challenge”, a group dance exercise adopted with an air of desperation aimed at cheering everyone up, became popular on social media for a few weeks.
The Hawks crime busters were busy, first interrogating many municipal officials for suspected scams of tenders for anti-virus personal protective equipment, then swooping on a drug factory in an upmarket residential estate where they found R155 million worth of heroin and ingredients for the drug Mandrax.
And finally, after a threatened rates boycott by residents, police agreed to crack down on public drinking and misbehavior, enforced by the President’s ban on the same over season.
As I write, holiday bookings are still pouring in as upcountry folk stream to the coast for a much-needed break from the extended lockdown, and there is some hope that local businesses will be able to recoup some of their losses.
So, while people will have been able to find positives and negatives in this landmark year of 2020, we will agree that it is not an experience we want to go through again.
From us all at the Courier newspaper and Get It magazine, Happy Christmas and may you have a prosperous New Year.
