Durban's coastline from the air

I wondered whether an investment in a scanner or two might be a better long-term bet but South Africa’s employment situation is so dire the last thing it needs is technology that replaces humans.

The reason I was visiting Victoria Markets was I had a rather keen interest in acquiring some Tanzanite. Supposedly found only in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, it’s touted as being rarer than diamonds. With a lack of time ruling out going to Tanzania to find my own gem, I found myself listening to a gem wholesaler tell me why my wife would appreciate Tanzanite so much more than a diamond. My problem was going to be doing his job with my wife and trying to explain why she should want it more than a diamond.

In the days beforehand, everyone from taxi drivers along Durban’s Golden Mile of beachfront to the waiters at Butcher Boys restaurant – as I happily consumed a South African dry-aged fillet steak washed down with a 2007 Beyerskloot pinotage – had told me Tanzanite was the gem I needed to buy. Even the beachside Hotel Elangeni’s concierge had tipped me off on its rarity and beauty.

The previous evening, across from the hotel, as I sat at the Beach Café with my feet in the sand under a pale blue sky daydreaming and watching schoolkids play chicken with the waves and an unusually nimble roly-poly boy kick a football with his dad, the bartender mentioned … Tanzanite. Earlier in the day I had eaten the wondrous bunny chow – a mutton curry served inside half a loaf of hollowed out white bread at a kind of chain restaurant called Mrs Govinder’s – and the old Indian woman behind the counter agreed Tanzanite was the gem of the future.

The dealer brought out the big guns – his wife and another employee who proffered yellowing and dog-eared newspaper articles reiterating the whole Tanzanite story. They also mentioned the price and I realised I had slipped into the tyre-kicker category. More pertinently, the dealer could see it on my face. He lost interest. I was just another tourist with the artificial wealth that comes with a good exchange rate – good for food and local beer but useless when it came to buying something of real value.

Mark Eggleton

Hotel Elangeni

63 Snell Parade

Durban 4001

South Africa

Tel: +27 31 362 1300

Fax: +27 31 332 5527

Web: www.southernsun.com/hotels/elangeni/

Email: elangeni@southernsun.com