At last

At last the Durban beachfront nears completion. Residents and visitors can now cycle, run or walk the entire 6km stretch of revamped beachfront. FIFA's fan park is ready to roll and all the nooks and cranies that used to be home to the homeless are no more. In fact there is no place to hide and people almost feel exposed which is great when the sun shines as it always does this time of the year. Now if we can just keep the braai brigade off those new lawns and allow nature or the city sprinkles to water the lawns instead of the pee anywhere brigade!!

Please Sir can I have some more

No Trains, no ships, no pipelines. Strikers enter their fourth day of no work no pay. This time thousands of rail commuters were forced to find alternate means of transport. The minibus taxi bosses were rubbing their hands in glee as the queues at their ranks grew ever longer by the day. Strikers gathered outside the Durban Metro rail HQ within site of the gleaming new football stadium. They even brought along their vuvuzelas to practice for the world cup. They vowed (as usual) to strike until all their demands were met. These mostly include a 16% wage increase and other benefits. In the meantime ships gathered outside Durban giving the crews ample time to try their luck at fishing as they waited for clearance to enter the closed harbour.

Indaba

There were thousands of them. From Dubai to Japan they came to Africa's biggest tourism trade fair the Durban Indaba. Just when one thought all was lost what with clouds of ash and a Greek tragedy it seemed like the money was still changing hands. For the uber rich tourists the deal now is "you tell us what you want and we will arrange it" So... keen to stroke a cheetah or a great white shark , no problem for a small fee we arrange it.Walking through the stands was like a veritable tower of Babel with foreign languages rolling off the tongues of well heeled operators. Somewhere in the melee were the humble game ranches trying to take on the mining conglomerates who are planning open cast mines in adjoining sensitive area. Guess who will win in the end? In the meantime delegates blew on those awful monotone vuvuzelas hoping that the noise would frighten off the bad guys.