Durban Diaries Blog

Here's a great Durban-related blog done by TV cameraman Clive Read. He uses it to document some of the things that he sees on his travels about the city.

Durban Diaries

Electricity hikes

A snippet from the council mouthpiece Ezasegagasini Metro from June 27, 2008.

***The price of electricity in the city is most likely to go up by 29.5% next week.

My opinion: This is in response to price hikes from electricity supplier Eskom. Short-sightedness has resulted in the fact that South Africa does not have enough power generation capability, which has resulted in a serious crisis for all of us. We have had quite a bit of loadshedding already and there is the threat of more this winters. If we want more power, and of course we do, we'll just have to pay up. The galling thing is that those responsible for the crisis have not, and most likely never will be, called to account.

Council snippets

Snippets from the council mouthpiece Ezasegagasini Metro from June 27, 2008.

***The price of electricity in the city is most likely to go up by 29.5% next. This is in response to price hikes from the beleaguered electricity supplier Eskom. A combination of their and government's short-sightedness has resulted in the fact that South Africa does not have enough power generation capability, which has resulted in a serious crisis for all of us. If we want more power, and of course we do, we'll just have to pay up. The galling thing is that those responsible for the crisis have not and never will be called to account.

Speaking out on name changes

I very much fear that President Thabo Mbeki might have put the final kibosh on any hopes that some or all of the street re-naming might be avoided. As reported in the Mercury of June 27, 2008, he called for the renaming process to be conducted so as to ensure "inclusivity and nation-building and take into account the sensitivities of communities". Nothing wrong with those sentiments but the snag is that Mbeki is pretty unpopular as far as the local ANC hierarchy goes, and they're the ones running things around here. I'm sure they'll be even more determined now.

Referring to an earlier post on the blog, which concerns plans to improve the beachfont, the same paper reports that the management of the Ocean Conference Centre are objecting to the plan to demolish it to make way for other things. CEO Ilan Haresh said that the loss of the centre would be harmful to tourism.

I would possibly agree if any attempt had been made to maintain this 'precious' tourism resource. It is tatty and faded and a major eyesore, as far as I'm concerned.

Shipbuilding

By coincidence, I have received a picture of one of the tugs, referred to in the previous post, being built at SAS in Bayhead. I must do a longer article on the the state of the industry sometime. Picture used courtesy of Siemens.

Water canons and shipbuilding

There was not much in today's Sunday Tribune (22 June 2008) on yesterday's story, except a brief mention that a protest had taken place. There was also a Reuters picture of a water canon being used on protesters.

In a more cheerful vein, in the Business Report section of the paper, it was reported that South African Shipyards is doing fine, having won the contract some time ago to build five tugs for Transnet. The company was apparently rescued in 2006 by a R24-million loan from the Kwazulu-Natal Growth Fund. Some 270 permanent jobs have been created and R200-million spent on local suppliers and contractors.

It was reported that major new orders are shortly to be finalised and that the head of the navy Vice Admiral Johannes Mudimu is to visit this coming week to establish SAS's technical ability to build vessels for the navy and to find out if SAS can build ships "beyond the country"; whatever that may mean.

I have an article here which I wrote a couple of years ago on the local shipbuilding and repair industry.

Rubber bullets fired

The News 24 website has reported on a clash between demonstrators and police in Durban today. The police apparently fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd who were allegedly Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters protesting against the decision to rename Mangosuthu Highway.

Check out my previous post on the subject. The full events of the day are not yet known so I won't pass any judgement except to say that I'm not surprised that there has been a reaction. Even the running dog Nationalist apartheid regime didn't make the mistake of wholesale renaming when they took power. It's just the sort of thing that might unite the opposition against you.

If I were the city fathers, I'd leave things as they are after the first lot of renamings. The names for future developments and structures would be open to debate but I'd want one of the first to be named after John Dube. He is a worthy canidate in that he was actually from these parts and founded the Zulu-language newspaper Illanga, which is still going today, and was firt president of the ANC.

Cleanest Town Competition

According to today's issue of free newspaper Kwana (20-26 June 2008), Durban has won a cleanest town competition held by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). This has apparently caused an outcry from Desmond D'Sa, head of the South Durban Environmental Alliance, who said he doesn't think the town deserves the award. For myself, I see with my own eyes that Durban is hardly pristine and that the litter does pile into drifts quite often. Durban is not as bad as it could be but I shudder to think what the other towns are like.

Floods

I received the following pix via a generally circulating e-mail. The copyright is unknown and I'll gladly take them down if requested.

Even more on the floods

Today's Mercury (19-6-2008) has a number of pictures showing flooded areas in KZN. Snippets from the paper reports today include:

• * A comment from eyewitness Richard who saw the BA plane land "significantly further" along the runway than usual. There was a huge spray of water and the plun spun rounf, as if it had done a "handbrake turn". A picture shows the plane with its rear undercarriage (port side) of of the runway and sunk into the mud to the extent that the wing-mounted engine seems to be resting on the ground.
• * The Sapref Oil Refinery was affected by the storm which knocked out a section of the plant. It was restarted in the afternoon. There had also been oil spills which ended up on adjacent beaches after getting into the sea when flood water overwhelmed the refinery's storm water system. The Engen sulphur recovery plant in Wentworth had tripped and would run at a reduced rate for some days. Some cars and a bus had ben stranded by the water in Tara Road near the refinery gate.

More on the flooding

Take a look at today's entries on the East Coast Radio Newswatch blog. There is a lot on the floods including pictures.

Entries include:

• * The BA plane skids off of the runway. - Flight 6203 from Johannesburg skids off the runway after landing at about 11am. A subsequent entry says the airport re-opened at 3:30pm.
• * Road Closures as of 3:30p.m. - An employee of SAPPI SAICCOR' (50km south of Durban) left a comment on the blog entry that staff were sent home early in case they were stranded at work.

Flooding in KZN

Just last weekend were talking about how dry the weather had been but the situation changed with a vengeance last night and this morning. There was some rain overnight in Waterfall but I went into Durban this morning without realising just how much rain had fallen in other areas. I was at Mr Mozzies in Argyle Road around midday when the heavens opened and it began pelting with rain. During a slight lull, I ran to the car and set off up Argyle Road as the rain came gain in full force.

I have to say that I've never seen anything quite like it as we inched up Argyle with hazard lights flashing and visibility severely reduced as result of the driving rain. The gutters weren't coping and there were sheets of water hurtling down the hill. I eventually made it to the top of the hill and turned into Ridge Road with the rain still heavy. I then headed down Crescent Road where I saw floods of red soil-stained water flowing down to Alpine Road. I needed to keep all my attention on the road, but it looked as though a considerable amount of damage was being done.

In Alpine Road and Brickfield Road, the water levels had risen to almost covering the centre island and SUVs were throwing up wakes that would have put a jet boat to shame. It was still raining heavily when I turned into Sparks Road, heading in the direction of 45th Cutting. There were large pools of the dirty red red rainwater lying all over and, again, the impression of lots damage done. By the time I had reached Jan Smuts Highway, the rain was easing off and by the time I got to Westville, there were only a few spots falling.

We will probably only get a full picture of the effects of the rain in a couple of days but this afternoon's Daily News (18 June 2008) reported that:

• A British Airways flight skidding off the runway at Durban International.
• 100 residents of an old age complex in Amanzimtoti having to be rescued after spending much of the night in the hall.
• A block of flats in Amanzimtoti had to evacuated.
• Residents of Club Marina at Ifafa Beach had to be rescued by jetski.
• The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) rescued people from the Pont Holiday Resort in Port Edward.
• Many motorists were trapped in heavy traffic caused by mudslides and standing water on the roads.
• A deep puddle on the Southern Freeway near Victoria Embankment shut the freeway down to one lane of traffic.

The SA Weather Service website reported that 72mm of rain had fallen in four hours at Lois [sic] Botha airport in Durban. The change of the airport's name to Durban International years ago hasn't made much impact there, then. They also reported rainfall of 382mm at Paddock on the South Coast, breaking the previous record of 337mm set in 1964.

Street renaming

I was digging through my picture files and came across this one which I took shortly after the first round of renaming in 2007. It's one of the ones which I regret because Dr William Stanger, the Surveyor General, was the man who actually did the first survey of Durban beginning in 1845 and would have been instrumental in deciding where the streets were to go, including the one bearing his name.


Another picture I found was this which was sent to me a couple of years ago and which, by coincidence, was taken in Mangosuthu Highway, which is one of the streets shortly to be renamed.

Metro snippets

The eZasegagasini Metro is a newspaper put together and distributed by the city and functions as the voice of the city authorities. The latest issue came my way as a supplement with the Mercury of 13 September 2008. A couple of interesting snippets:

• >>Deputy mayor Logie Naidoo is reported as defending his decision to give an R11-million loan to the Remant Alton bus company [see here and here]. Naidoo, as acting Mayor, approved the loan under the Rule of Order 18, which allows the mayor to approve matters of extreme urgency without reference to the city's executiove committee. Oppositions councillors were up in arms and called for an audit of Remant Alton. Deputy Head of Public Transport Erik Moller said the city would not terminate Remant Alton's contract. He apparently said that the company wasn't getting away with murder [as it might perhaps appear to the uninitiated -Allan).
• >>Street renaming of 99 streets is to go ahead regardless of all opposition and the first of the new street signs could be up as early as next week. Siyabonga Mngadi, deputy head of Corporate Geographic Information Systems, said a contractor has been appointed and the process should be complete in a couple of months.
• >>Thanks heavens, but at least there was some good news in the paper. It was reported that renovations are underway on the city hall. The rather wonderful building, which resembles the Belfast City Hall and was starting to look a bit sad, is to be refurbished in a R43-million project. The restoration plan was developed in 2001 by Paul Rappaport, an Australian** expert in sandstone restoration. The restoration was to have begun right away but there was difficulty in getting matching sandstone. Work is underway on the north facade, which should be complete on 2 November this year. Next will be the west facade which should complete in July 2009, the south facade in February 2010, and the east in August 2008.
• >>Looks like we've got a new sister city. Top brass from New Orleans in the US visited last week and a memorandum was signed (on June 10) as the culmination of four years of talks. The New Orleans delegation was led by Mayor RC Nagin and Durban was represented by Mayor Obed Mlaba.

**In one of the coincidences which are the breath of life to me, the city hall was built by the firm of Cornelius and Hollis and completed in 1910. William Cornelius was also from Australia and had arrived in Durban in 1895 after the Land Bank crash. He set up as a building contractor in premises in Stanger Street. There are many references to Hollis, Cornelius and the City Hall on the main FAD site, which you can find using the search function.

A1 GP lost to Durban

The Mercury of June 10, 2008, reported that the A1 Grand Prix, which we had hosted for the past three years, is not returning to Durban. This after being being voted best host city. The reason given is that the cars are to have Ferrari engines next year, which will make them too powerful to negotiate our street circuit. I don't know about that but I bet money comes into the equasion somewhere. It isn't yet known where the race will be held in future, maybe at Kyalami. I was fortunate to get a press pass to to the 2007 event and had a great sunburned time. By the way, this isn't the first time street races have been held in Durban.

Beach Renovation

The Mercury reported yesterday, June 9, 2008, that the beachfront stretching from Thekwini Beach (south of Blue Lagoon) to Addington is to be revamped. And not before time, I added.
What they've got in mind are an events beach and a multi-use promenade. The Rachel Finlayson Pool will apparently get a facelift and the Ocean Sports Complex at Dairy Beach is due for the chop to make way for a restaurant. Exact details of the plan were not known 'because a decision had been taken' not to discuss them before the relevant committee had had a chance to do so.

There was talk in the same paper that the city would have to bail out bus operator Remant Alton for the second time, to the tune of R11-million. In theory, this is due to the fact that the company has not received its subsidy payments for a couple of months. The city is to get its money back when the subsidy payments are received.

In the Forum (readers' letters section) Peter Quantrill, who must be the well-known local historian, warns of the great political damage that would result from changing the name of Mangosuthu Highway (which I wrote about here). Quantrill said the move 'sniffs of petty-minded political revenge'. He underlines Buthelezi's pedigree and says that the naming of the street came about through his efforts to raise money for the establishment of Mangosuthu Technikon which had provided an education for 1000s of black people.

Archaeolgy

The Mercury of June 5, 2008 reports that archaeologists have discovered what they believe is a 60-thousand-year-old arrowhead in the Sibudu cave outside Tongaat. The finding was revealed in article written by Dr Lucinda Backwell and Prof. Lyn Wadley, with Franesco d'Errico as a co-author, and published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The arrowhead is 20000 years older than any other evidence of bow and arrow technology in the world. Our area is rich with archaeological sites including the Sibudu cave where humans have lived for an unimaginably long time, and its high time I did did a story on that.

Public Transport Lanes

We have acquired lanes reserved for buses and minibus taxis on the western freeway. They were opened on Friday, May 30, 2008, and include a couple of kilometers of red-coloured tarmac running from the beginning of the freeway to beyond Tollgate. The lanes are reserved for public transport and occupy the right-hand, or fast lane, of each of the carriageways.

The Independent on Saturday of 31 May, 2008, reported that, after the opening in the morning rush hour the day before, the lane was pretty clear of cars but also that that the minibus taxis weren't using it either. The Mercury of June 5, 2008 reported that the lane was being hailed as a success and that Ethekwini Transport Authority project manager Ramy Gokal had said that very few motorists had been caught using the lane. There are apparently sets of cameras monitoring three locations in each of the two lanes; each setup consists of a black and white camera which captures just the number plate on each car (with a 77% accuracy rate) and a colour camera which captures the whole car.

Warning letters will be issued to motorists caught this week and the fines will be awarded from next week. The fines'll apparently earn the city R300 a pop...

Sound and fury

Last week saw plenty of furious comment in the media about the current push by the city council to rename Durban Streets in bulk. The crisis has been building for some time with the ANC-dominated council bent on forcing through the changes to 98 streets on the one hand and, on the other, resistance from just just about every other shade of the political spectrum. There was drama when opposition councillors walked out of council meetings; at least one ANC councillor had water thrown in his face.

Long-term expatriates may not know that there has already been one round of name changes in which Victoria Embankment, Stanger Street, NMR Avenue, Point Road, Alice Street, Grey and Broad Streets, Commercial Road and the Northern Freeway got new names in a surprise move in April 2007.

I wrote this all up in the third edition of Facts About Durban, which you can order here, and I said that I appreciated that there was a genuine urge to rename roads and buildings to make Durban less of a contiuous reminder about the colonial era. I said I hoped that the process would end there but now it seems that the council is determined to impose another 98 changes on us and this is causing an enormous amount of ill-feeling.

There does not seem to be any sensitivity behind the process, with one example being Kingsway in Amazimtoti, which is slated to be named after executed bomber Andrew Zondo, who set off his bomb in that exact suburb, killing five and injuring more than 40. This in spite of the fact that Zondo's father does not want the street to be named after his son.

Another almost unbelievable example is that Mangosuthu Highway, named after Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, former Home Affairs Minister of the Republic of South Africa, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and hereditary prime minister of the Zulu nation, is to named after Griffiths Mxenge. If that's not a slap in the face of the entire Zulu nation and other right-thinking persons, I don't know what is.

The Sunday Tribune of June 1, 2008 has quite a long article on the subject of the renaming including a reported comment by city treasurer Krish Kumar, that the new street signs were to cost R700 each. This in a city where the potholes in the roads are proliferating and there is hardly a set of traffic lights with a full complement of working bulbs. Keeping on with the renaming is not only a bad idea for promoting reconciliation, but also a waste of resources needed elsewhere. And that's not even mentioning the chaos when all those streets change their names at once.

I am not hopeful about the outcome of all this but there may be a just a possibility of avoiding some or all of the renaming. It seems that central government has noticed the problems we're having down here. Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan was reported by the Independent on Saturday of 31 May, 2008, as having said that name changes should only be be undertaken if an overwhelming majority of the community wanted them. Well, we'll see...