Guesthouse dream in tatters

Thulani "Rush" Mkhize was certain, in May 2010, that the soccer World Cup would make his Umlazi guesthouse an internationally recognised township hangout.

But, almost three years later, less than 50 guests have stayed at his multimillion- rand guesthouse.

Mkhize's 20-room Kwa Rush establishment was touted as one of South Africa's biggest township hotels and relied on Fifa's accommodation arm, Match, to save it from becoming a white elephant.

"It is now a white elephant. I have spent at least R10-million on a white elephant," Mkhize said yesterday.

Though the guesthouse was empty during the World Cup, its doors remained open for business.

"I refused to close it because I believed that people would move past the perception [of] the township as a haven for criminals. But I have had less than 50 guests stay at my establishment since it opened its doors," he said.

Desperate to put people in beds at Kwa Rush, Mkhize considered letting out rooms to students of the Mangosuthu University of Technology, in Umlazi.

"But it seems that even that is not working.

"I blame the government. They refuse to look our way. If government officials stayed in township establishments during conferences, it would help us. But government officials don't want to stay in the township, so what does that say about our establishments?"

The head of tourism in the eThekwini municipality, Philip Sithole, yesterday agreed that government officials and politicians should be the first to book into B&Bs and guesthouses in the townships.

"I know that accommodation establishments in townships throughout the country are struggling. There really hasn't been a constructive effort in terms of marketing. The government and travel agencies really need to start booking these establishments. And politicians and celebrities should be talking about these hotels - but to talk about them, they must sleep there; they should be doing that," he said.

Sithole said there was still a perception that townships were unsafe and the standard of service poor.

"When people go on a township tour offered by Durban Tourism, they have a tour guide and are in a group so the perception of danger diminishes, but if tourists stay there [overnight] they would be alone or with a partner. These perceptions are still around and affect township establishments nationwide," he said.

The city is working with the Umlazi Community Tourism Organisation to sell the township as a package to tourists.

"We want the accommodation establishments to be in that package.

"If we have an integrated approach, we will get tourism up in these areas, but obviously this would be a long-term project," Sithole said.