The Musina Municipality and the Beit Bridge Town Council are working on a plan to market the two border towns jointly ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Speaking in an interview at a recent press summit in Musina, the mayor, Cllr Caroline Mahasela, said the move was in line with the twinning arrangement between the Beit Bridge and Musina municipalities, which was signed in 2004. “We intend to embark on a joint initiative with our counterparts in Beit Bridge where we intend to complement each other in the area of marketing our border towns, which are the main gateways into our respective countries. You will also realise that we recently jointly cleaned up the border post to spruce up the image of our countries. In light of that we are saying, there is need to beautify our towns, so that they are marketable and attractive to visitors who will visit us during the 2010 soccer World Cup,” she said.

Mahasela said her council was also prepared to assist Beit Bridge in the event of a fresh cholera outbreak in the border town. She said a special committee comprising health officials from Beit Bridge and Musina had since been set up. “We are aware that with this onset of the rainy season, there are chances that we might possibly have another cholera outbreak in Beit Bridge or Musina and therefore, as a precautionary measure, we have selected a committee to help deal with the disease. This is under the twinning arrangement that we have with our Zimbabwean counter-parts,” she said.

Beit Bridge was among the towns hits worst by cholera in the country, with more than 1500 cases having been reported at the height of the disease late last year. The disease, which was first detected on November 14 last year, was the worst of its kind, when 54 people died in one week.

This resulted in Unicef, several NGOs and international organisations such as Medicins Sans Frontiers, the International Organisation for Migration and the South African government chipping in with assistance.

The South African Department of Water Affairs assisted by supplying water storage tanks and refurbishing the water treatment plant and repairing the burst sewer pipes, which saw effluent flowing into the Limpopo River. The river is an international source of water for residents of Beit Bridge and Musina.

“Beit Bridge and Musina are growing fast and they handle a huge influx of travelers. Therefore, for us to ensure that cholera does not recur, we need to work together and our government has pledged to assist us in fighting cholera.”

Beit Bridge is a flowing tide of truck drivers, sex workers, unaccompanied children and desperate border jumpers trying to cross the border into South Africa. With this uncontrolled growth in its population, the town’s infrastructure continues to be severely strained, resulting in constant sewer bursts and perennial water woes.