Westown, Shongweni — Local services in KwaZulu-Natal

Expect to sit in traffic for about upwards of 20 minutes, should you wish to visit this mall. Visit when you have time and don’t need to be anywhere in a hurry.

The bathrooms didn’t have soap! Taps are of the push button type. Most malls these days have touch-less systems in place to reduce transfer of harmful pathogens. It might be wise to carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer. On the plus side, the ventilation is great and there are benches outside the bathrooms.

There are lots of dangerous tripping hazards! Please be careful about how you walk, especially on those wooden block's. There are steel bars on the benches and around some of the support poles, which you could easily injure an ankle on.

We also observed workers from the Vape store standing outside the door and blowing their second-hand vape smoke out into the pathway, which shoppers were walking along and indirectly inhaling.

The kids play area is extremely hazardous, as mentioned by a previous reviewer. Be warned that parents are not allowed to venture onto the play areas to support their child if they are struggling or in need of assistance. A security guard told this to a parent that helped his child after he had helped his child down the little hill on the play area.

The cellular data reception is very poor and Westown does not offer complementary Wi-Fi as other regional malls do. Be prepared for this. Some stores like the Crazy Store didn’t have signal to process card payments which led to delays.

The Pick ‘n Pay is superb! Excellent customer service and a nice seating area where you can sit and have your coffee and toasties. I think that it might be one of the only eating spots in Westown with a scenic view of the green hills. A highlight of our visit to Westown!

Please note that there isn’t a food court with the usual favourites that one may associate with other malls’ food courts. (No Nandos, KFC, Pedros, Debonairs). In lieu of this, one can support local eateries at The Barn, Mugg and Bean or Milky Lane. I’d strongly recommend Kalamata Kouzina for their delicious gyros (Greek wraps). Halal options...

Quite frankly, it's a total waste of money. A total white elephant. The construction is shocking, walking outside, the tiles, the wood over the drains, half are already broken, the unsustainable flowers they planted require tons of watering, (they should be indigenous to South Africa and drought tolerant). It's the same stores you get at every single mall. The two best stores were Checkers & Pick-n-Pay which says a lot.

The kids play area was crazy, no one supervising, so many things a small kid could get hurt on. I can see stuff breaking there in no time. Kids were out of control and the germs!!!! There are no signs to say which direction you're going to which shop. Only stairs, no elevators. If you're in a wheelchair you're SOL. It's out of the way, it's difficult to know where you're going as nothing is marked well, even parking and leaving the parking lot. Nothing was finished, people can hurt themselves badly on loose bricks, missing slats of wood over drains, which whomever got that job will have for life cause those are already half broken.

This place clearly wasn't thought out. It's not even helpful for the poor folks that live in that area as they won't be able to shop there. You can see for yourself, however I don't recommend it. Rather stick to another...

We had a reservation at Joop, so excited that they have relocated up here and we don't have to drive down to Durban to enjoy this amazing restaurant. We tried the Shongweni Assagay offramp. Waiting 2km down the M13, we managed to turn around and tried Kassier road, we were stuck outside Busamed for 30mins, not getting anywhere. We moved maybe 500m in 30 minutes. So not only are the paying tenants at Weston losing much needed income, but anyone trying to get into the hospital would have been impossible. If any ambulance with a critical patient trying to get into the hospital, that patient would have died trying to get through to the hospital. No one would be able to get into the hospital from the Kassier road side or the Shongweni Assagay off ramp side. Unacceptably dangerous. Gridlocked. It is deplorable that there has been zero foresight into traffic management to aid the flow of traffic. Even organising a pointsman to try get the traffic moving. Not only are tenants at Weston suffering, but people's lives are literally at stake too.

Do better Westown management, you've caused all this mess. Sort it out....