[imagesource: Shiraaz Mohamed]

Last week, snow blanketed the area around Ceres, and people flocked to the Matroosberg Nature Reserve.

There were snowball fights, a “snowdevil”, and even one chap who braaied in his jocks with a beer in hand.

We salute your bravery.

The snowfall got many thinking about South Africa’s only ski and snowboarding resort, Tiffindell, which is usually gearing up for a massive influx of visitors at this stage of the year.

Clearly, that won’t be the case this year, and the Eastern Cape resort has been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst some hotels and resorts can accommodate those travelling for business under alert level 3, that is not the case for leisure travel, and Tiffindell remains empty.

The Daily Maverick’s Shiraaz Mohamed headed to the resort, situated on the slopes of the Southern Drakensberg, to speak with those affected:

“We have prepped really hard for the current winter season. It’s devastating that we are not able to open and operate, especially since the weather is so favourable for snowmaking. As employees of the company, we all feel really worried about job security. It is definitely a blow if we are not going to open,” said Mike Visser, snowmaker at Tiffindell…

About 80% of the local economy depends on the resort attracting visitors from around the world. When things are in full swing, the report can house 150 guests, and as many as 350 people may buy day passes, staying in the nearby town of Rhodes.

“Tiffindell makes use of state of the art equipment to generate snow. It is a very costly affair. June to August is our peak period and when we have natural snow, there is a huge increase in visitors. We increase our staff capacity to deal with the influx of visitors.”

Image: Shiraaz Mohamed

“We just experienced our first snowfall for the year, but it is sad that the resort remains empty. I currently can only afford to put two staff members on duty. The rest, including myself, is on unpaid leave,” said resort manager Maarten Den Heyer.

Like so many businesses around the country, strategies around new ways to generate income have had to be implemented, although Den Heyer remains hopeful that a drop to alert level 2 could still salvage part of the season.

That may be coming soon, given that scientists responsible for advising the government’s response to the coronavirus actually recommended that South Africa could move straight to alert level 1 on June 1.

You can read the Tiffindell article in full, and see more of Mohamed’s photos, here.

[source:dailymaverick]