The way things are

In plain old "never changes" Mtunzini, things are definitely changeing!

The doctors have relocated from the house that was the medical centre some 300 meters down the hill to where the chemist used to conduct business - the Raphia Centre. They have practiced from here for at least the last 2 decades.

The chemist had moved up the hill to a spot between the new bottle store franchise (kind of always was a bottle store owned by the people across the lane from me!) and the Spar Store. The 2 doctors in the village  were operating from their homes, and decided to start consulting from a house opposite to the centre where a restaurant has opened.

Kind of shows that things are always changeing!

Ever since we have lived in the village (way to small to be a town - thankfully!) there have been mainly houses stretched around an area from the prison (only one that I know has sea views from most cells) to the Country Club. Not so long ago, the farmer between the country club and the Umlalazi Lagoon sold off his farm to developers who cut the area up into incredibly expensive plots and a new suburb is growing up. True the multi million rand homes overlook Port Durnford (an area of low cost housing) but the draw of water frontage has drawn "big bucks!"

With this development, the strangle hold that the local Spar outlet has had on food prices is looking like it is waning fast!

I was stunned the last time I went up to the nearby Game Rerserves, to see that a hotel in Mtubatuba has been replaced by a Pick and Pay development. Like the local Spar, the traders in Mtubatuba operated along the lines of "If you want to save money on groceries, shop in Empangeni - or Richards Bay!"

Even in Empangeni the local Greek cafe owner (very rich but he dresses like a pauper!) has opened yet another new Spar store ((SuperSpar) and because he is open from 7 am till 9 pm, he charges a bomb for stuff, and gets away with it! When I first came to Empangeni, he owned a really scruffy Spar in a run down bulding. That burned down and he relocated just down the hill to a bigger building. He then built Central Park, with Spar as the key tennant, and has now built a brand new mall. He has been moving further and further down the hill towards Richards Bay.

I see that at the junction of the John Ross highway (into Richards Bay from Empangeni) and the N3 freeway down the coast, construction has started on a small factory development. The other side of the John Ross (the farm land between Empangeni and Esikhawini, has been slated to be eventually dredged and the harbour extended up to the N2 freeway! That is going to be a tremendous boost to the economy of the area.