For a good cause

This is an appeal to regular visitors to the Facts About Durban site to make an occasional donation to support the site. I suggest that £5 might be a nice round sum but you're welcome to choose any other figure that reflects the site's value to you. You can donate on the main FAD site, by clicking the button above, or the text link at the top right-hand side of any page on this blog.

New plans for white elephant

In the face of general scepticism on the decision to build a new soccer stadium for the world cup in 2010, the Daily News of July 25, 2008, reports city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe as having said that the decision to build the new R2,8-billion Moses Mabhida stadium was based on a plan to attract other high-profile events to the city, including the 2020 Olympics. A UK-based consultancy apparently said that we could either refurbish the existing stadium for R800-million or go for it and build an iconic new facility. I guess the idea of being responsible for 'icon' sold the idea to city management but I would have preferred the R800-million option where you could have also fixed the fences along the beachfront, doubled the size of the fire department and had quite a lot of change left over.

That was the on the front page of the paper but, elsewhere inside, the city manager was quoted as saying that the country's new soccer stadiums were way ahead of where the Germans were at a comparable stage before their World Cup. I have no definite information on the topic but its a thing that I would find very difficult believe of the Germans, having experienced their efficiency and ours'.

Beach quality

I see from today's copy of Ezasegagasini Metro (July 25, 2008), the council mouthpiece which accompanied the Mercury, that noticeboards are going to be put up on all beaches informing visitors of the state of the state of the seawater, what facilities are available and how clean the beach is. A new method of testing the seawater for faecal contamination is to be used and, while I don't understand the difference in testing methodology, it is different to that used in the internationally recognised Blue Flag beach programme. Like I say, I don't understand the full implications of all this but it does sound like a school test being dumbed-down until the kids can pass.

An equality court

We have an equality court court in Durban and, according to an article on the Indpendent Online website, it was today hearing a discrimination case brought against Durban High School. The school was accused by a mother of teaching her son sub-standard (or kitchen) Zulu during 2007. The school pointed out that it is an English medium school and that the boy hadn't been treated differently to any other.

Petty but so costly

Petty criminals have apparently managed to bring large areas in the south of Durban to halt by stealing the bolts that secured a power pylon to the ground. According to today's Mercury (July 23, 2008), the pylon fell down and disrupted the electricity supply to a large area. Among the industries affected were Toyota at Prospecton, who have had to shut down their plant until next Monday, most likely.

The municipality warned that residents might be without power for as long as week and that it could cost R2-million to re-erect the tower temporarily. Millions and millions of rands in damage and all for some bolts which may be worth R200. The municipality electricity department says they are continually being plagued by metal thefts including copper wire.

I think we need to shoot a scrap metal merchant.

Beach disaster zone

A couple of us went on an early morning trip to the beach yesterday (July 19, 2008) to photograph the sunrise and we were amazed to find that the beach in front of Ushaka Marine World was a disaster zone. By the look of things, an effort is being made to shore up the path in front of the tourist attraction with large sandbags, but the place is a total mess. The snake park was recently demolished partly because it was "located in the coastal erosion zone" and unviable in the long term. From the current evidence, it looks to me as if Ushaka might be in the same category.

I could understand if there had been a major storm in the past week but the damage is clearly older than that. The beach is supposed to be the jewel in our tourism crown and more effort should be put into getting it right again. I'm not suggesting anything too radical like redeploying the gangs of workers currently putting up the signs with new street names, just that an effort needs to be made to respond quickly to things like this. The city depends on tourism and we cannot afford to let things slide like this.

We found another example of how things deteriorate if not given prompt attention, see below. Not finding any possibility of breakfast at Ushaka (at 8am on Saurday morning, which is something else the tourist wouldn't necessarily understand) we went along to the Suncoast Casino and parked right next to Pirates lifesaving club. The fence is between the beach and walkway is broken and quite clearly this is nothing recent. There are similar examples all the way along the beachfront.

It's all very well coming up with major and costly plans for the beachfront (some are currently in the pipeline) but in the meantime, if a fence breaks, it should be fixed immediately. If a lamp post or sign is rusty, it should be painted.

New helicopters

Picture (c) 2008 Allan Jackson

Durban-based 15 Squadron of the SA Air Force has received Agusta a 109 light utility helicopters, which are manufactured by Agusta Westland in Italy. Their appearance at the Durban Wings Club Airshow on 12 & 13 July2008 at Virginia Airport was the first time I had seen them. The 15 Sqn. insignia can be seen under the forward side window.

The aircraft can apparently carry six passengers, two crew, have a top speed of 285kmh and a standard range of 472km. The Port of Durban has been operating a civilian version of the aircraft to transport pilots to and from vessels entering and leaving the harbour.

Fire fighter shortage

Today's Daily News (July 17, 2008) has a story about how critically short of personnel our fire brigade is. The shortage of staff was described as critical and that it's only a matter of time until people lose their lives as a consequence. This conclusion is reported as having been reached by the councillors on the municipality's health, safety and social services committee after hearing how desperate things have become. A special report has been ordered.

City manager Mike Sutcliffe is quoted as saying that the fire department is not the only understaffed one. The municipality is apparently sitting at a staffing level of 50-55% of what is required, and it would apparently take a 100% increase in rates over the next three years to get things right. Sutcliffe admitted that ratepayers are already squeezed pretty tightly.

Some fire stations in Durban only have two people on duty at any one time. Not even enough, as the Daily News comments, to hold a ladder properly. The councillors apparently slammed fire officials for the huge backlog of uncompleted fire inspections. Well, duh!! What do they expect when the brigade has 20 people doing that job where there should probably be 200? The councillors are apparently up in arms about the staffing levels and small fines handed out to owners of buildings which violate the fire code. The brigade doesn't make the laws and I would have thought the councillors would have known that.

I cannot for one moment believe that the committee has only just heard how bad the situation is when I, who am by no means an insider, have known for well over a year. I did a story on the brigade for the ratepayer's magazine Metrobeat over a year ago and the fire chief was quite open about his problems, saying that the situation was serious.

The city manager admits that the ratepayer is squeezed pretty tightly but doesn't seem to mind spending money on inessentials like a huge white elephant of a soccer stadium directly across the road from a perfectly good one. Other municipal wastes of time and money include bailing out Ushaka Marine World, to the tune of millions every year, and payments to a transport operator which, clearly, is not up the job.

And how about the costs associated with street renaming? I wonder how many citizens would have voted for that, or any of the other examples mentioned, if they had been given the choice of that or a couple more firemen. A street with a new name is not going to be going to be hauling your butt out of a burning building and most people, except ANC councillors, would easily realise this. We're in big trouble and the worst part is that I don't see any sign things improving.

Other snippets in today's news include:

** Residents of the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Clare Estate have been complaining, after being burned out, that they have no prospect of formal housing even after living for 30 years in shacks. A spokesman of the Department of Local Government, Traditional Affairs and Housing, Lennox Mabaso, said that the department had not failed the residents and that S'bu Zikode, president of the KwaZulu Natal Shack Dwellers Association, should educate his people about fire safety instead of talking the whole time.

** Next week will see a final decision on the fate of the Ocean Sports Centre on the beach. As has been mentioned in these columns before, the un-lovely complex was due for demolition but parts of it may be saved under new plans.

** The central reference library and Don Africana Library have reopened in Liberty Life Towers after having been closed for six months. It's hard to imagine but the libraries were closed after the lease agreement ran out and no alternative location had been found. No details were given in the story but an accomodation must have been arrived at with the building's owners.

Snake Park vanishes

The Daily News of today (July 15, 2008) reports that Fitzsimons Snake Park has been demolished after the reptiles inhabitants and park owner were evicted from the premises two months ago. The park has been located on the beachfront since 1938 when it was established by Desmond Fitzsimons primarily to produce snake bite serum for the military camp [Natal Command?? Ed.] The city, in the form of city manager Mike Sutcliffe, was reported as saying that the park owners were given sufficient notice and that, in any case, the building was located within the coastal erosion zone and unviable in the long term.

I don't know for sure, but I'm betting that the park owners did nothing because they didn't have any money to move the park. We spend lots of money marketing the city but rather less on making sure that it's nice for tourists when they get here. Our sub-standard bus operator Remant Alton, and Ushaka Marine World get plenty of handouts from the city, so why not the snake park? Why not cut a small piece off of Ushka and house the snakes there? Instead, we have one attraction less for tourists to visit and spend their money. I wonder what's next?

First test

The first cricket test currently being played between England and South Africa at Lord's Cricket Ground has a Durban link. The 152-run partnership between between Ian Bell and Stuart Broad is England's highest for the seventh wicket against South Africa since the 115 put up by Johnny Douglas and Morice Bird in Durban in the test which began on December 13, 1913. Funnily enough, the 1913 record was also played on a Lord's Ground, which was Durban's cricketing venue at the time.

I originally heard this snippet during the match commentary and it was confirmed by Steven Lynch of the wonderful Cricinfo site. Steven also gave the interesting information that Morice Bird made only 10 test appearances for England, all of which were in South Africa.

I heartilty recommend Cricinfo which carries live coverage of all important cricket matches, has match reports on every test and most first class matches ever played, and every imaginable batting, bowling and fielding record.

New Street names go up

The Mercury (July 3, 2008) reported today that new street name signs began going up yesterday and siad the process would be completed by the end of the month. The newspaper points out that there wasn't much fuss yesterday, but notes that the same might not be true when they try to put up the new signs in Mangosuthu Highway, the renaming of which is fiercely resented by many Zulu. The Inkatha Freedom Party has apparently said that the safety of the working parties cannot be guaranteed.

I wasn't born when the Nationalist Party took power but, even though they pushed insensitivity to new levels, they didn't come and rename the streets where people lived. The behaviour of the local ANC leadership seems uncessarily confrontational with their inflexible commitment to renaming such a large number of streets only after (what seems to me) ANC and SA Communist Party dead members. There does not seem to have been any thought or concern about the feelings of any other group who, I might add, include the Zulu, who are the dominant ethnic group in South Africa. This sort of behaviour is no better in my eyes than that of the Nationalist regime when they ran the show.

I didn't think I'd be this upset when the renaming started again.

Flying the blue flag

The Mercury, July 1, 2008, reported that deadline for applications for Durban beaches to re-qualify for Blue Flag status in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup has passed without such an application being made by the city. The deadline was at midnight on Monday but national coordinator Allison Kelly said that no application had been received. The reason for the long delay in granting Blue Flag status is because beaches must undergo a year's Pilot Phase before the internationally accredited distinction can be bestowed.

A number of our beaches had achieved Blue Flag status but lost it after a number of problems were found including water with unacceptable levels of faecal contamination. The city's beach problems also featured recently in one of televsion program Carte Clanche's famous exposes. The lost status caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth and accusations that the Blue Flag organisation was applying higher standards to Durban than it does elsewhere. There seems to be the belief, by some officials, that Durban shouldn't bother with Blue Flag but apply its own standards to its beaches. The word from the Mercury is that the hospitality industry is dead keen to go back to Blue Flag.