It was once a drawcard for Gqeberha families and visitors alike, but after years of vandalism and neglect Happy Valley is a shadow of its former self.
Now the large recreational park located next to Humewood Beach and stretching all the way up to the defunct Telkom Park (the old Boet Erasmus Stadium) is home to vagrants.
Worryingly, it has also become a hideout for criminals and is reportedly being used as a getaway route by drug syndicates and thugs.
Only small section of lawn near the beach office remains where people can safely relax and enjoy themselves.
Many of the Disney installations that used to delight children have been stripped, along with lights that used to give the area a magical atmosphere in the evening.
Concerned business owners and residents shared heart-warming stories about how Happy Valley used to be a famous hangout spot – with one going as far as to say it was the only remaining asset with economic potential in the Bay.
Their nostalgic reminiscences, however, are overshadowed by concerns that lack of security and maintenance in the area is robbing the city of huge potential benefits.
Clifford Hanks, owner of the Beachwalk Bed and Breakfast, said the valley had been degraded over the years.
He was speaking on Friday after a Herald team walked deep into the crime-ridden valley.
Filth in ponds and empty alcohol bottles are an eyesore.
Electricity boxes have been stripped and copper cables have been dug out of the ground.
Fairytale installations such as the Lion King portrait have been removed from their frames and lie scattered around.
Happy Valley is largely unkept: its enormous palm trees are untrimmed, and it is bushy all around — more like a jungle than a park.
Flamingos are displayed on a board next to the beach office, but none could be seen in the park.
Hanks said he used to take his children to the valley about 30 years ago.
“It was just a nice place to take your kids and walk around. That’s all gone. That’s all been stolen and destroyed.”
He said the first 100m of the valley from the beach office still had pretty decent grass.
“There are lights and cameras in that area adjacent to Kings Beach. But as you move inwards, then that has all been stolen.
“You can’t really go up there. It is not safe.
“We have several vagrants that have built shacks in the bushes adjacent to Happy Valley just behind the Town Lodge parking.”
Hanks said police regularly dismantled the shacks.
“It has also become a bit of a conduit for the bad elements that can break into cars or mug people.”
Criminals would head up Happy Valley and leave from the old stadium.
“It’s a pretty easy kind of escape route up towards Walmer township.”
He said 25 years ago tourists and families even used to camp in the valley.
“You can’t do that anymore so really it is a shame.”
But Hanks said the valley could still be rescued.
“I think the main thing is together with the rest of the beachfront we’d like to re-establish what we used to have.
“But there is no point in doing so if we don’t have metro and municipal security on duty after hours.
“I’ve seen the degradation. Happy Valley is now unhappy valley.
“It has so much potential. It had all of that but it’s just that it has been allowed to go downhill.
“We can try fix it but if we don’t have security, it’s gone,” Hanks said.
Summerstrand Neighbourhood Watch chair Ian Millar said parts of the valley used to be a theme park, saying it had been a magnificent set up.
“It’s been neglected. Before Covid-19, it had already been neglected,” Millar said.
The valley was populated by vagrants and unemployed people, who sought to make a living out of stealing copper and underground cables.
“They were just allowed to strip the place clean,” Millar said.
He said it would be difficult — and expensive — to restore the valley without first addressing unemployment in the city.
Millar said the neighbourhood watch and business cluster had spent thousands of rand installing cameras and lights along the beachfront.
In the valley, close to the beach office, lights were put up and now visitors could sit on the lawn during the daytime.
“There is an attempt to regain and recover Happy Valley, but it cannot get [back] to its former self.
“It’s got a huge potential for tourism as a theme park. But it is dark at night.”
Millar said he suspected that criminals who carried stolen perlemoen and sold drugs used the valley as a getaway route
“You’ve got to have lights, but you can’t put money in the hole. You need metro police.
“But the metro police is severely understaffed. I don’t mean understaffed by 10 or 20 people.
“You cannot have the whole of Port Elizabeth, townships, Uitenhage and Despatch being run by 128 or whatever metro police and 30 of them being administrators.
“Our city needs to engage and increase the size of our metro police.
“Without that, everything else is going to carry on going down the drain, including Happy Valley.
“We have got to get leadership right. All this stuff [that is said] during elections is not helping people.
“It’s not bringing tourists and that’s not creating jobs.
“We need to start treating Port Elizabeth like a business and get it going again.
“We have wonderful assets. A wonderful coastline. We have to look after what we have. Happy Valley has great potential.”
Ward 2 councillor Sean Tappan said the vandalism that had degraded the park over the years was “largely because there isn’t sufficient metro security covering our areas”.
“There are one or two guards at the boom there, but that is not anywhere near enough to protect the whole Happy Valley,” he said.
Tappan said plans had been discussed in August with the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) to develop Happy Valley and the piece of land where the stadium was located and convert it into hiking and bicycle trails as well as a conference centre.
“I sit on the safety and security committee. We’re trying everything [from] our point of view to get those things to work, but it is really a struggle without the investments, and a proper plan put in place.”
Tappan said he was hoping that the new MDBA board and possibly a new chief executive would come up with a project for the valley.
Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said Humewood officers conducted crime prevention patrols to ensure police visibility in the valley.
“It is part of the normal day-to-day patrolling the beachfront area and not specifically aimed just for Happy Valley.
“The vision is a safer environment for everyone visiting the beachfront and seeing more SAPS members deployed should not be a cause for alarm,” Beetge said.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
