Chef Reza Mahammad to maybe start a training restaurant?

Hopefully where there's smoke there's fire...

 

Gwen Gill in her Social Scene column in the (South African) Sunday Times this past weekend says Trina Matheson of the Emakhazeni Tourism Association talked international celebrity chef Reza Mahammad into a breakfast to discuss starting a training restaurant for unemployed youngsters in Mpumalanga - read Machadodorp - like Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in London.

 

This would be very good news for the Mpumalanga Highlands region, which experiences major unemployment and non-existent assistance from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) to help put it on the map.

 

I've heard from some reliable sources that the MTPA is elusive, disorganised, can never be reached on their phones and never return their calls, that they do absolutely nothing for the Highlands region. In other words they suck. So what purpose exactly do they serve? And if they do nothing for the Highlands region, surely they shouldn't  then have the all-comprehensive "Mpumalanga" in their title?

 

(In the interests of 'balanced blogging', is there anyone out there in cyberspace who's got something positive to say about the MTPA? If so, I'll gladly post it HERE.)