As I sit here in my home in Humewood writing this, there is a gentle breeze outside. Let’s be honest that breeze is with us most days. But wind? Heck, no!
For people living in Gqeberha, I would like us all to make a stand to rid ourselves of a title that is thoroughly undeserved.
Before moving here from Cape Town 18 months ago, I was warned by almost everyone I spoke to about the gale-force winds I would face on a daily basis.
People kept calling Gqeberha the Windy City and coming from Cape Town, where wind is a real problem, you can imagine my concern!
You may think something like this is trivial and ask, “what’s in a name”?
But marketing professionals will tell you that a label like this sticks and can cause immense damage to reputation — particularly in terms of a tourist destination like ours.
I’ve come to realise since living in Nelson Mandela Bay that not only is it considerably less windy than the Mother City, but those clever Capetonians have done a very effective job of shifting attention from their own adverse weather to us!
Let’s look at the stats: Gqeberha is not the windiest place in SA — that title officially belongs to Cape Point, followed by Cape Town Harbour and then our own Cape St Francis.
The coastline around Cape Town is not called the Cape of Storms for nothing.
With an average wind speed of 30km/h, the ever-popular tip of the Cape Peninsula records an amazing 100 days of gale-force wind each year, many of them during the blue-sky days of summer.
Weather sites such as weatherspark.com indicate that in Cape Town, the “windier part of the year lasts for 5.3 months, from October 9 to March 18, with average winds speeds of more than 19.6km/h”.
Anyone who has lived in Cape Town will tell you that when that famous South-Easter (known as the Cape Doctor for its cleansing effect) blows, it blows!
Wind speeds of up to 70km/h are not uncommon.
Often the wind is trapped in the Cape Town city bowl by Table Mountain and if struggling in these conditions is not bad enough, Capetonians and visitors alike have to endure the wind for most of the year.
The Cape Doctor usually starts blowing from the end of August through to March and is most active in November.
Significantly, it can last for days on end, whereas here in Gqeberha, disruptive winds are rare and when they do occur, they don’t hang around for long.
While Cape Town and Gqeberha admittedly share a fair amount of wind, we cannot claim the record of the strongest-ever recorded gust in SA.
That title goes to Beaufort West (Western Cape), where on May 16 1984, the wind speed was recorded at an incredible 186km/h.
But as a coastal city, we are not the windiest.
Having just returned from a trip to Cape Town, I was reminded of the wind there on a daily basis, so much so that a boat course I was on had to be cancelled.
So, it’s time we reject our unwanted title, return it to the Cape and claim what we rightly should be called: The Friendly City.
And having lived in both Cape Town and Gqeberha, I can certainly vouch for that.
Dr Dean Allen is a best-selling author and keynote speaker. He is currently writing a book about the history of wildlife tourism in the Eastern Cape. www.deanallen.co.za