By Nangamso Mabindla
29 July 2004

THE Buffalo City municipality is ready to redevelop and revitalise major tourist attractions such as the East London beachfront. And the City has set up the Buffalo City Beach Development Agency to oversee the task.

"Through initiatives like this, we wish our city to be a safe, healthy and sustainable place - characterised by socio-economic equity, opportunity and people-centred tenderness," says Peter King, the acting chief executive officer of the agency.

King says the agency is the municipality's tool to co-ordinate and manage public resources - and to pursue opportunities for using these resources to attract investment.

Redeveloping the beachfront will emphasise that the city is a people-centred one, he adds.

But, says King, the task of upgrading the beachfront is "not without its challenges".

Before work can begin the agency needs to investigate all the features of such a project: what it will mean for resources, job creation and the environment.

"We need to look at how local government continues to ensure that its industrial, commercial, recreational and suburban core infrastructures are maintained and extended through the project," he says.

The City also has to look at ways to grow its resources and attract serious money - which will mean more jobs.

"Buffalo City has recognised there is massive, unrealised, potential in its hard and soft assets," says King.

Buffalo City had, as part of a strategy to harness this potential, drawn up plans - which included the setting up of this agency.

The agency will redevelop the beachfront, Quigney (a suburb just off the beachfront) and the East London CBD.

"We believe that these three areas have very strong prospects of short to medium-term investment."

The Beach Development Agency will also look at developing other areas, including the West Bank - with the Industrial Development Zone, the old Grand Prix Circuit and Leaches Bay - and the Quinera River.

"With flagship developments in some of these key sites, I believe that investor confidence will snowball and that in 20 years time, the whole of Quigney and the East London waterfront will be completely revitalised," King says.