180413, Coffee Bay 'town'

It was raining a little this morning, so Thobile didn’t arrive for his class.  I can’t say that I mind.  I have enough to keep myself busy with. Right now (2:15pm) it's pouring and I'm enjoying some butternut/lentil stew...goodness!

One thing that is a little bit on my mind these days is the news (maybe old news for some but things happen so slowly around here, the effects may only be seen in a decade or two, who knows!) is that it is now official: Coffee Bay - Hole in the Wall is being turned into a town.  

I’m not sure exactly what that means but I do find it rather interesting.  It makes me wonder about some questions, like: 

What exactly makes a place a town?

Why do they want to make it a town?

Who will benefit from this idea and how exactly?

How will the local people be affected by it?   For better or worse?   

What exactly is going to be done to make this change?

How long will the process take and when will we start seeing results?

What are going to be the pros and cons in general?

Precisely what area will be enclosed in this town?

At this stage I can only guess.  I'll let you know once I have any answers.  I’m not sure if it is really a good idea to do this whole thing, since Coffee Bay is about 70km away from the main road (and the road is still pothole-riddled), it’s geographical setting is rather narrow, not much land close to the sea and then the hills start.  And how can they take land that has always belonged to the families of the community?  Logistically I can’t really see it but then again I’m not a town planner so what do I know.

Either way I must confess I find the idea of historical change rather exciting, even though I enjoy being here for exactly the reason that this isn’t really a town.  The fact that time hardly exists here.  And that some days nothing happens just because it’s raining.  Because I’m a dreamer, reflecting kind of person, I appreciate that. 

What does ‘a town’ mean?  Being able to buy property and having to pay tax on it? (The locals won’t be able to afford that.) That things are organized in a civil manner?  And that the municipality should be more responsible for the general upkeep of things, like keeping it free of trash, that would be a good thing. That’s one unpleasant aspect seriously spoiling the beauty of this place. 

And hopefully they'll ban bottle stores from selling alcohol on Sundays, cause that is a major thing that happens here on Sundays, it is party day for locals from surrounding area and I often don’t even want to enter the street on a Sunday because of all the noise of the drunken party buses and people trashing their glass bottles wherever they wish.  It is not uncommon to hear of someone getting stabbed at these gatherings.  If I want to go to the beach on a Sunday, I better just go early before the drunkards arrive to harass me.  It would certainly be a positive thing if they could change all of that business. 

An unavoidable negative point would be the increase of tsotsis.  At the moment it is relatively safe here.  Hopefully they'll have a police station in the centre of this town, wherever that's going to be.