MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

This is Gonna Make the Longhair so Jealous

By

Emfuleni Resorts Chairman Bongi Siwisa

The Longhair and I have this abiding love affair with seafood, sushi and, strangely enough, Avocado Pears. The Mother in Law will occasionally dish up an odd number of avocado slices just to watch us squabble over who has had the most.

When the mood strikes the Apprentice Longhair and I will spend the better part of a day preparing and making a Sushi feast. Of course the Longhair continually says that my Sushi is the best – actually I think she says that just to ensure that I continue to make it.

For once the food overshadowed an event at the Boardwalk‘s sod turning ceremony yesterday. It took a while for people to catch on when I asked which sod from council was going to be turned.

Levelling of the new development area at the Boardwalk has already started and the Oriental Village has disappeared. The new-look Boardwalk will include a 140-key 5-star hotel with its own health spa, fitness centre and heated pool, an international-standard, multi-purpose convention centre, a new smoking casino, the latest gaming machines, more retail shops, an 874-bay parkade under the new convention centre and hotel, and the Boardwalk Multimedia Lake Spectacular, the largest musical water extravaganza South Africa has ever seen.

Chairman of Emfuleni Resorts, at 52% the major shareholder in the Boardwalk, Bonigi Siwisa said; “This is an incredibly exciting time for all of us here at The Boardwalk. The joy of receiving our new 15-year casino operating licence in October was followed by weeks of frantic activity which saw trees being uprooted, lakes drained and buildings flattened. Alas, the iconic Oriental Village is gone forever, but fortunately all the trees were successfully transplanted and the fish from the Oriental Lake have safely joined their brothers in the upstream lakes. After all of that we have now finally reached the point where the site preparation has been completed and the real construction phase of the bigger, better and more spectacular Boardwalk complex can start.”

Over the next 24 months the Boardwalk envisages spending over R1 billion rand creating more than 5 000 direct and indirect jobs. It is estimated that the total number of direct jobs would increase by approximately 480 to around 2 100 once the development is fully completed. Additionally, the total number of direct and indirect jobs would almost double from around 4 000 in 2009 to over 8 000 in 2025, by which time The Boardwalk is expected to have contributed as much as a cumulative R26-billion to indirect household income.

For once the Boardwalk really upped the bar when it came to feeding the assembled hacks and VIP’s with many people commenting very favourably on the food. I seriously had to restrain myself from not sneaking a couple of petit fours into my camera bag, slices of rare filet between the pages of my diary or a platter of sushi and prawns under my hard hat. I did spot one of the photographers decanting some petit fours into her bag though – it is not done to remove free food sister, rather leave it in the hope that some charity will benefit.

Dare I say it? The food actually attracted more of a buzz than the R1 Billion to be spent – there is a lesson in marketing to be learned somewhere there but I am still feeling a bit full to think.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

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Comments

  1. I am wondering if maybe we should get the municipality to show the Boardwalk how to really create jobs.

    After all the municipality has projected creating 33 THOUSAND jobs out of a paltry R87.5 million.

    Here the Boardwalk is investing R1 billion and predicting 8 000 new jobs!

    See the local municipalities projection here: Draft Budget says that Municipality may Create over 33 Thousand Jobs.

    Or maybe we should get the Boardwalk’s finance people to show our municipality how to use an Excel Spreadsheet – right after they master a calculator of course!