Discussing Mossel Bay’s future recently, the new Rawson franchisees say the town’s inhabitants and its local government are excited by the fact that three major projects in their area are set to attract considerable capital and many people to Mossel Bay.
This, in turn, they say, will make local property once again attractive to investors and boost the town’s reputation as a good place to do business and to live an enjoyable life.
The first project is the Petro SA’s offshore drilling operation, for which the company has now been given the go-ahead and on which work has started.
Secondly, the upgrading of The Point precinct, the focus of Mossel Bay’s tourism which is set to become a Provincial Heritage Site with the focus over the next five years on achieving ‘World Heritage Site’ status. The vision for this includes a public square, carriageways, new parking areas, a museum and plans for most of these have already been passed by the Municipality.
The third project is the initiation of a waterfront that has been discussed for years, but in which Mossel Bay locals had largely lost faith. Building on concepts that have proved so successful at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, the Municipality here will be transforming the harbour area into a tourist and retail mecca.
At a recent Business Chamber function, the Rawson team had the opportunity to confer with Minister Alan Winde, Western Cape MEC for Tourism, Economic Development and Finance.
They were pleased to hear that Mossel Bay is slowly becoming a priority to Provincial Government and all efforts to see growth in the area now have priority status with the minister.
His message, says Andre Piguet, was that people needed to bring tourism and business together to move forward and reach for new goals.