words MACK MAKHATHINI | pictures JON IVINS

Ekasi, home sweet home

Our Town

SITUATED just 17kms southwest of centralDurban, Umlazi, with a population of550 000, is South Africa’s second biggestblack location after Soweto.

Althought the township was created bythe apartheid government in 1955, thename of the area is much older and comesfrom King Shaka Zulu himself.

The warrior monarch was travellingwith his warriors when he sampled thewater from the river separating present dayUmlazi and Chatsworth. He described itas tasting like sour milk (umlaza). Thename Umlazi was born.

What is so fascinating about living inthis township is that the spirit of Ubuntu(humanity) is still strong, with millionairesliving next door to the poorest of the poor.

Umlazi is home to the successful youngbusiness tycoon Sandile Zulu, Chairmanof Zungu Investment Company (Zico) andnon-executive chairman of Supercare.EThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba still ownsa house here, surely an indication that thetownship is, after all, a safe place to live inand raise a family.

Many of those who have moved fromUmlazi to suburbs nearer the city centrecan’t stay away. The come back to ekasi(slang for township) on weekends for a feelof township life.

Tour guide Meluleki Mgobhozi is oneof them. He grew up here and despitehaving moved to the suburbs for work, stillreturns every weekend. “I miss theatmosphere. It’s lonely in the suburbs.

I will marry and be buried in Umlazi.”Mgobhozi’s main aim is to develop theeconomy of the township. “The moretourism we get here the more jobs therewill be.”

He said that whenever white people

visited Umlazi they saw a different angleto what they had been told by other peopleand what they had read in the media.

“There’s life and it’s nice. I alwaysencourage them to buy property in thetownship.”

For visitors, Umlazi offersaccommodation ranging from bed andbreakfasts to guest houses. For lunch anddinner, there’s a top class restaurantKwaMamgo with highly qualified chefsserving up delicious traditional townshipcuisine.

Mgobhozi’s mother, a qualified caterer,runs a registered restaurant from her home.The family hosts the tourists. “The littlethat a tourist does is much for the peopleof Umlazi, as we are sponsoring a numberof children in the area with school uniformsand fees,” he said.

However, city centre hotels wereunwittingly robbing townshipentrepreneurs of potential income bywarning their guests not to bring theirwallets and cameras on tours of Umlazi forfear of theft. “This makes it hard for thetourist to buy some items in Umlazi andas a result income is lost.”

He said many visitors were surprisedto find that Umlazi was not the run-downshanty town they had imagined, but rathera bustling town spread out over green hills,complete with neat houses, a hospital,schools, malls and churches.There’s good sanitation and, since 2001,the tarred, lamp-posted streets have namesinstead of dehumanising Apartheid-assigned numbers.The markets mix the prosaic with the lessfamiliar. At Ezimbuzini (the goats place),animals are sold both for eating and ritualslaughter; the large lady selling vegetables

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