into the car park of uShaka Marine World in Durban. The “news” this past week hasn’t been great; Public Service strike, illegal strike action, mining license issues, Zuma’s son making undeserved money, the proposed Information Bill and the Media Tribunal....it seems never-ending!
All of which received massive, and negative international media exposure.
Who said a week is a long time in SA politics?
And to cap it, the family who bought my house when I left Johannesburg were tied up and robbed by what appears to be a highly organised crime syndicate (no one was injured, but having been through it myself it is really, really an awful experience which sadly is so commonplace that it doesn’t make the news these days).
So, as I set off for a day’s visit to uShaka with my children (half-term) I wasn’t exactly feeling great. I’ve never really liked that part of Durban anyway! During the 60s I was a surfer-boy who used to hang out on South beach in boarding school holidays, surfing and chucking Lucky Strike stompies into the sand! It was a seedy area then! A few years later, in my early career, I was responsible for Industrial Relations in the stevedoring industry, we had 6000 migrant labourers housed in compounds not 500m from the landmark Addington Hospital. And who can forget the notorious Smuggler’s Inn and the dodgy “red light” district along the Point Road precinct? The whole area between Addington and the now widened harbour mouth was a no-go zone for most Durbanites going back 40 years!
So, I wasn’t expecting much.
But my, how it has changed! We as a family had a truly great experience at uShaka, the aquarium is a world-class facility situated very creatively in the hull of a ‘wrecked ship”. One has the sense of being in the bowels of the ship peering through portholes at the surrounding marine life, it’s ‘full on’ with rocks, wrecks and real treasure!
The dolphin show blew my children away (me and ‘the wife’ too, actually!). Cyril Ndlelose did a great job of hosting it, pulling participants out of the crowd as the dolphins demonstrated an ability to synchronise that I found quite extraordinary. No Russian Olympic team of synchronised swimmers could compare!
After that it was the rides. My children joined up with a whole bunch of young black kids who all spoke with “last Outpost” accents as they asked their parents to look after their cellphones before cavorting down the ‘suicidal’ rides. The staff couldn’t have been friendlier as they handled tourists eager to have a good time.
Sadly, it seems, the good old days of communicating white on black “Enza lapa, enza lapa and particularly lapa” are gone – jokes!! KZN used to be the only province where local pride forced the colonisers to learn and speak the language of the colonised. But I hardly heard Zulu spoken anywhere, which in a way is sad, I wonder if there is a rainbow language emerging? But, I digress...
Next it was lunch at Moyo’s on a new pier 100m into the Indian Ocean. The sardine run was on and the beach packed with people and ski-boats. We had a great meal of very African cuisine which was as tasty as it was inexpensive!
Then we set off for a short walk along the promenade with the impressive Durban skyline ending with the Moses Mabida Stadium in the background. It was a glorious day which ended with us all swimming in crystal clear water off a clean beach. Hardly a Lucky Strike stompie to be seen!
When I arrived back in the car park the news of the week seemed so far away as I marvelled at the transformation of one of the seediest parts of Durban. There is still work to be done, but the progress is commendable. I hope I’ll be able to say the same of the mining legislation and the contemplated press muzzling measures in the not too distant future...“after a bad start the progress is commendable” - That seems to be the South African way at the moment!
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