By Nangamso Mabindla
11 January 2007

DEVELOPMENT of East London's most prized position, the beachfront, could turn it into a lifestyle city.

Possibilities mooted for the beachfront follow a visit to the city by a French businessman, Christophe Vieux. He was in the city specifically to look at the chances of changing the face of the area.

Vieux, who is in the nautical industry, held talks with Premier Nosimo Balindlela, the National Ports Authority, the Industrial Development Zone, the Border Kei Chamber of Business, DaimlerChrysler South Africa and the various yachting clubs in East London.

After looking at Orient Beach, Vieux said there were opportunities to turn it into a marina. "There are very big opportunities here; but we need to be at it urgently before we lose an opportunity.

"We cannot have yachts and big vessel ships occupying the same space at the harbour. We need to separate business from leisure and move the yachts to Orient Beach, and create a marina there. Then we can have a waterfront from Orient to Eastern Beach and this will improve tourism," he explained.

The creation of a marina would be in line with other developments along the East London coastline. These include the planned airport expansion, the Industrial Development Zone and the R4-billion port expansion.

Vieux said that all the role players were excited about developing the beachfront.

The City's communications manager, Darby Gounden, said that the municipality was also pleased about possible improvements. "The creation of a marina in East London is good news and I would like to call on all our partners to work with us to make it happen."

She said that a marina would also be a catalyst for the tourism industry. "It's not only about boating; it's about developing a lifestyle city, increasing job opportunities, changing the appearance of the city and making East London more attractive."

The face East London presented to the sea needed to be changed, she said, and this would boost economic growth as part of the City Development Strategy.

"We also have land like Signal Hill that needs to be included in this big plan. We are also looking at restaurants, hotels and other business. However, we would like this to be very inclusive - we don't want to leave the poor behind. We aim to involve all the citizens of Buffalo City," Gounden said.