HOST: Sunshine Coast Tourism head Wouter Hensens says they are delighted with the coverage that Port Alfred has already received through participating in the Dorpie van die Jaar competition. Image: Screenshot
“We’re excited that the rest of the country gets to see what we already know: that we live in one of the best towns in South Africa.”
Sunshine Coast Tourism head Wouter Hensens spoke to Talk of the Town after Port Alfred was announced the Eastern Cape finalist of KykNET’s Kwela Dorpie van die Jaar competition last weekend.
Port Alfred is one of nine finalists selected from across South Africa and Namibia that will be vying for the title of South Africa’s best small town for 2025. A first round of SMS votng in March determined 27 towns that would be in the running overall, with three semifinalists selected from each of the nine regions. A second round of SMS voting determined the nine finalists.
Kwêla films and screens an insert on each of the nine towns that made it to the final round. When all nine towns have been featured on Kwêla, the public will be able to vote for the winning town from 7pm on July 13 to midnight on July 18.
The winning town will be announced on August 2, 2025 at Kwêla.
Highlights of Kwêla’s Port Alfred segment included a river trip with Halyards, surfing with Kye McGregor at Shaka Surf School, a session with the Kowie Granny Grommets boogie boarders and more.
“We’re super happy with the footage of Port Alfred,” Hensens said. “We did our best to get the Kwêla team that came here a few weeks ago to see everything and interact with some interesting people – but there was also a lot that was spontaneous,
“In a nutshell, it’s super. We think this exposure is going to go a long way in attracting more visitors to Port Alfred, specifically from South Africa, which is our main market.”
If Port Alfred wins overall, there’s a prize of R1 million in marketing value from kykNET.
Homebrew Films, the producers of Kwêla, will make a 45 second commercial about the winning town, which will be broadcast during kykNET’s advertising time.
Kwêla will be in the town again to film its winner’s celebrations, to be broadcast later in the year. There’s also a R1 million cash prize for the winning town to plough back into their town, donated and audited by Lottoland.
“Each finalist town will be asked in advance to submit a business plan on what they intend to do with the potential prize money,” Kyknet explains on their website.
“We’re keen and we’re optimistic that we might win this thing!” said Hensens.
The Eastern Cape finalist of Kwêla Dorp van die Jaar was officially announced on Sunday June 8. Kwêla broadcasts on Sunday at 19:00 on kykNET (Dstv channel 144). Watch the short video of Port Alfred at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C5dcHM5Th/ (or just go to Kyknet’s Facebook page).
This article was first published in Talk of the Town, June 12, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
