This coming Tuesday, Special Assignment looks back at a story broadcast two years ago, in which promises were made and expectations raised.
In a program entitled “Promises and Lies”, the award-winning documentary program returns to the inner city of Port Elizabeth, where there were hopes for rejuvenation, where it was believed that drug dealers would be vanquished and slumlords brought in line…and asks the question: has anything changed?
“Yes…it’s got fifty times worse!” says one of the most vocal of PE residents, Councillor Terry Herbst.
He’s particularly incensed by the failure to renovate the Donkin Row, the 18 terraced houses, all national monuments, that line Donkin Street.
Two years ago, Irish investor Kenneth Denton, who owns the buildings, promised action.
“Of course we will be improving these buildings”, he said. “But we would rather look after those that need the most urgent care right now…”
That seems to have been a promise and a lie. The buildings in most urgent need of care are now almost only fit for demolition.
Even the vagrants who live in them complain.
“As you can see, this place is a bugger up”, says a man who has illegally occupied a building near Victoria Street, one of the oldest parts of the city.
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