The main assets of Ratanga (dubbed the wildest place in Africa) are the rides, which include the Cobra, Tarantula, Sling Shot, the Diamond Devil and other ‘kiddy rides’ like bumper cars, roundabouts and ferris wheels. Technically these assets are owned by banking conglomerate Nedcor, which inherited Century City after their takeover of BoE.

Exactly what will happen to ‘immovable assets’ like the restaurants, attractions and water based rides is not known, but be sure these may have to constitute a write off.

Cape Business News understands there has been local and foreign interest expressed in these assets. In fact, some years ago Gold Reef Casino and Resorts, the gaming group which operates the profitable Gold Reef City theme park, purportedly offered Nedcor R1 to take over Ratanga.

Century City spokesperson Maggie Rowley says: "A number of options are currently being explored, but no decisions have been taken yet. As things stand the theme park will operate until the end of Easter."

Presumably Nedcor, clearly not in the business of theme park management, would like to be shot of Ratanga Junction ‘lock, stock and barrel’.

Presumably the buyer or buyers will also be lumped with the not inconsiderable cost of dismantling the rides, which in some cases (like the Cobra) will be an engineering feat.

But a variety of theme park operators – mainly based offshore – may wish to cherry-pick the most viable rides. This could cause a prolonged selling process with the sale of assets being negotiated one-by-one.

It might make more sense for Nedcor to ‘parcel price’ the Ratanga assets with a bargain basement tag with the rider ‘Buy All or Nothing’.

Whether Gold Reef Casino and Resorts will revisit a bid on Ratanga will be interesting to gauge. It may be possible for Gold Reef to move Ratanga’s assets to land adjacent to their casino at Mykonos on the Cape West Coast, where the rides could offer an added entertainment/lifestyle attraction to punters.

But some sources reckon the Ratanga assets would be better suited to a move to the nearby GrandWest casino near Goodwood. A tourist trap like the Waterfront, or a revitalized Muizenberg also seem logical locations for theme park rides and attractions.

Then again skeptics have pointed out that the viability of running an open air theme park in Cape Town is rendered unviable due to the winter rains and strong winds in summer.

Overall, though, it’s worth remembering that Ratanga was developed in 1998 to the tune of R350m. If Nedcor make back a smidgen of that original development cost it would be considered good going…

Speculation is that Nedcor will probably make a decision on Ratanga in May.