Durban - uMngeni Mayor Chris Pappas has called on tourists looking for a more varied experience to visit UMngeni, proudly proclaiming that his municipality has more to offer than Durban.
He is hopeful that the tourism industry in his area will be revived this festive season and attract thousands of people while creating thousands of jobs.
He was speaking during the launch of the municipality tourism period last week.
The municipality invited members of the media to tour the area, which has some of the most popular tourist areas in the province that include the Mandela capture site and the Mandela museum.
“We wanted to show you what is here in UMngeni,” said Pappas, adding that their industry in uMngeni is largely based on tourism and those who support tourism.
Speaking on what the visitors to the area can experience, he said: “ I am going to be cheeky now, I am young, I can hide behind that… the (uMngeni) municipal manager said you can go to eThekwini and go to Gateway or the beach if it is not closed, and that’s it.
“But when you come to uMngeni, you can go to the Karkloof forest or the gorge. You can go to the Midmar dam, which is our very own beach. You can go wine tasting. You don't have to go to Western Cape ( for wine tasting). There are wine farms right here in the Midlands.
“There are hundreds of small businesses that create crafts, beautiful hotels and guest houses that you can spend a night in, whatever you are looking for, uMngeni has it,” he said.
He said the municipality has the ambition of being a tourist mecca, but to get to that point, there are still challenges that need to be overcome.
He said these ambitions would be achieved with the partnership from different communities who are buying into the vision of what they want to achieve in uMngeni.
“We have some exciting plans, some are infrastructure, and some are one of a kind (projects),” he said, revealing that a tender for the first work on the Howick Falls upgrade worth about R5 million is expected to be advertised at the end of the month which will trigger the start of minor work in repairing the site.