Something spooky’s going on in Makhanda ...

Makhanda is not just 14 days of amazing and Makana Tourism is on track to prove just that.

On Saturday night, the town held its first Halloween pub creepy crawl, where guests were treated to a spooky walk across town and stops in the town’s most iconic bars.

No ghosts were spotted along the way — perhaps they were too scared of the group, who were dressed up as witches, she-devils and monsters while listening to chilling experiences of Makhanda’s iconic and historic buildings.

“There are lots of ghosts in Makhanda, but we don’t have any at the hotel, I promise,” were the first words from Eugene Repinz of Graham Hotel as he welcomed guests.

“There are a lot of things that we can do locally and we can create our own entertainment without having to travel,” Repinz said before the walk.  

With torch in hand, shone in the face, ghost enthusiast Brian Jackson told stories of a blue apparition that is said to haunt a top local school and a lady that apparently haunts another.

“Makhanda has a number of old buildings, each with its own unique history,” Jackson said.

“One of them is the Makana Tourism department in High Street.

“Alarm number five of the burglar alarms goes off all the time [and] Hitech [a local security company] has tried to sort it out by switching it off but it still goes off,” he said.

Jackson told of a story of a ghost that he said still haunted the old Grocott’s Mail building.

“The most famous ghost story in SA emanates from that building,” he said.

“A ghost by the name of Shaw, who was a worker for the newspaper many years ago, still roams the newsroom.”

Jackson said Shaw’s ghost would always snoop up on his rival, Levy, by walking up behind him and putting his hand on his shoulder to peer at what he was typing.

“On one weekend, while Shaw was typing, he had a heart attack and dropped dead,” Jackson said.

Jackson said many people had felt Shaw’s presence while working late in the newsroom.

Makana Tourism director Sue Waugh said the event was part of their plan of making the town a tourism destination.

“We felt we needed a bit of fun and everyone is scurrying about in fear but we wanted something different,” she said.

“We want to look at doing similar tours, not necessarily ghost tours, but we as the team are working on other tours to attract different people to the town especially after the disastrous effect Covid has had on the town.  

“We are also open to the public suggesting new things for the tourism department,” she said.

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