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THE tourism town of Pilgrims Rest in Mpumalanga is reeling with shock and uncertainty after 17 businesses were ordered to pack up and close by the end of the month.

The businesses were issued with eviction notices last Friday by the provincial department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, giving business owners 31 days to close shop and telling their staff that they won’t have jobs by the end of the month.

The historic gold mining town dating back to the 1800’s was declared a National Monument in 1986, with its original architecture largely unchanged. The town is owned and run by the Department of Public Works and business owners lease the properties.

Tourism is the backbone of the small town’s economy, providing employment to residents of the local Schoonplaas township.

According to owner of Ponieskrantz Arts and Craft shop as well as the Pilgrim’s Pantry shop Sharon Paterson, business owners in town started receiving eviction notices on Friday.

 “My staff is very worried. Everybody in Pilgrim’s Rest is totally devastated and in shock ... I cannot move my stuff in a month, I have so much stuff with Pilgrim’s Rest written on it, how am I going to recoup what I have spent?,” Paterson said.

She said she was in an “absolute state” because she had to give notices of termination of employment to her 50 staff-members.

Paterson has been running the two shops in down town Pilgrim’s Rest for the past 20 years, employs a team of creative staff manufacturing stained glass doors, lamps, chandeliers and hot glass jewellery.

Public works, roads and transport spokesman Dumisa Malamule confirmed that 17 tenants had been issued with eviction notices.

He said the department advertised the leasing of the buildings on tender bulletin in October last year and the closing date was in November last year.

“The leases of all business which were on tender had expired. The whole tender process was finalised in June 2012 as the process allowed for a 90 day validity period with an allowance of extension when there is a need,” he said.

Paterson said they tendered for the leases in November last year but said since then they have heard nothing from Public Works. She said the department kept on postponing the announcement of the winning tenders, leaving them in a lurch.

“We were then told that the announcement would be made in June 9 but now we are told to leave in 31 days,” she added.

Furious Pilgrims Rest Golf Club Manager Henry van Niekerk said he was shocked when three “aggressive” public works officials rocked up with a four-sentence letter noticing them to vacate the Golf Course by the end of the month without any explanation.

“I refused to sign for the letter and told them that I work for a consortium running the Golf Course and referred them to the chairman of the committee but one of the officials became more aggressive and said ‘Blow by blow, we are going to blow you away’.

 “I told them to f...off. This sounds like a war and I am now scared,” he said.

Royal Hotel manager Chris Auty said they have not been affected by the leases fracas, saying they run the hotel on behalf of government. “We did not receive any eviction notice and we would not want to make any comment on this issue as we are not directly affected,” he said.

Pilgrim’s Rest Tourism officer Sherry Goodwin, who also sits in the local Chamber of Business, said she believed that the motivation behind the whole thing was to transform the economy of the town to include previously disadvantaged community; “...which is probably a good thing but change is not always accepted happily.

"I do feel for people that are employed here."

Comments

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Wed Jun 19 11:06:03 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 5, 2012

CheeseBoy

Is there a leader in govt who has a brain cell? It seems our govt is on a mission to just make our lives as crappy as possible.
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Jul 5, 2012

MommaC

Tenderpreneures and the government's ability to take something that is working and stuff it up !
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Jul 5, 2012

MicaParis

And still after this certain shenanigans still want to nationalise mines! How the hell do you nationalise mines within such an extreme level of illiteracy and embarrassingly unwarranted shortage of capable and capacitated political heads to develop those institutions and in suggestion they mean to say nationalise so that we can bankrupt all the mines so that we can all be poor and the same, how ridiculous!. We have extreme shortage of catalystic leadership material in our country I do not know who is going to help ANC to get out of these serious prolific toxic state of affairs, we are seriously in trouble as a country. Yet when we advise, Comrade Zuma and Gwede hardly listen thereby remaining rigid and extremely primitive thereby lending the country into a very scary situation and hopeless future for our beloved country!
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Jul 5, 2012

mbondo

The truth of the matter here is about losing election nothing else , once the ANC smell defeat jeeer it's gonna implement radical policies to please it's masses. The ANC is not gonna go down without a fight , they would rather turn this country into a sh8t hole believe me . Look what Zuma said in the closing of that conference , he said the economy is still in the hands of whi tes and they need to destroy apartheid economy. Okay tell me , who's still holding apartheid economy? gradually the ANC will grab every whi te business and hand it over to blacks who are their eletorate. So wake up whi tes and smell the coffee , your business is going whether you like it or not. If I were you I would just sell my business take my money shove it in the bank and just chow interest that's all , other wise you're gonna lose like these whi tes in Pilgrime Rest.
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Jul 5, 2012

WordofGod

oh no!!! i love this place. i always passby when i am on holiday. btful and very relaxing....eish!
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Jul 5, 2012

WakeUpSouthAfrica

mbondo - Yeah, then watch the government panic when theyre is no more 1 trillion rand budget.
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Jul 5, 2012

Ann

eish, do this people think mara?
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Jul 5, 2012

mbondo

@WakeUpSouthAfrica
They don't give a crap about 1 trillion rand budget , all they need is to be kept up there forever.
Does Mr Mugabe care about the state of the economy in Zimbabwe? No he does n't care , he continue taking from whi tes and giving blacks and he's still in power as we speak. The masses in Zimbabwe are very happy about what Mr Mugabe is doing , they repeatedly voted him in . So expect the samething here , the ANC is playing their cards under the table at the moment but the time is coming when they'll play them openly on top of the table in full view of everybody.
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Jul 5, 2012

WakeUpSouthAfrica

mbondo - Err... Bob actually LOST the last elections dude. And correction, he takes from the whites and gives to himself. Nobody else is getting anything.

Same here in SA, the ANC doesnt care. The top dawgs loot and plunder for themselves. They dont care about you.
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Jul 5, 2012

shaharazad

Cry the Beloved Country!!!
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