1
words MACK MAKHATHINI | pictures JON IVINS Ekasi, home sweet home Our Town SITUATED just 17kms southwest of central Durban, Umlazi, with a population of 550 000, is South Africa’s second biggest black location after Soweto. Althought the township was created by the apartheid government in 1955, the name of the area is much older and comes from King Shaka Zulu himself. The warrior monarch was travelling with his warriors when he sampled the water from the river separating present day Umlazi and Chatsworth. He described it as tasting like sour milk (umlaza). The name Umlazi was born. What is so fascinating about living in this township is that the spirit of Ubuntu (humanity) is still strong, with millionaires living next door to the poorest of the poor. Umlazi is home to the successful young business tycoon Sandile Zulu, Chairman of Zungu Investment Company (Zico) and non-executive chairman of Supercare. EThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba still owns a house here, surely an indication that the township is, after all, a safe place to live in and raise a family. Many of those who have moved from Umlazi to suburbs nearer the city centre can’t stay away. The come back to ekasi (slang for township) on weekends for a feel of township life. Tour guide Meluleki Mgobhozi is one of them. He grew up here and despite having moved to the suburbs for work, still returns every weekend. “I miss the atmosphere. It’s lonely in the suburbs. I will marry and be buried in Umlazi.” Mgobhozi’s main aim is to develop the economy of the township. “The more tourism we get here the more jobs there will be.” He said that whenever white people visited Umlazi they saw a different angle to what they had been told by other people and what they had read in the media. “There’s life and it’s nice. I always encourage them to buy property in the township.” For visitors, Umlazi offers accommodation ranging from bed and breakfasts to guest houses. For lunch and dinner, there’s a top class restaurant KwaMamgo with highly qualified chefs serving up delicious traditional township cuisine. Mgobhozi’s mother, a qualified caterer, runs a registered restaurant from her home. The family hosts the tourists. “The little that a tourist does is much for the people of Umlazi, as we are sponsoring a number of children in the area with school uniforms and fees,” he said. However, city centre hotels were unwittingly robbing township entrepreneurs of potential income by warning their guests not to bring their wallets and cameras on tours of Umlazi for fear of theft. “This makes it hard for the tourist to buy some items in Umlazi and as a result income is lost.” He said many visitors were surprised to find that Umlazi was not the run-down shanty town they had imagined, but rather a 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 names instead of dehumanising Apartheid- assigned numbers. The markets mix the prosaic with the less familiar. At Ezimbuzini (the goats place), animals are sold both for eating and ritual slaughter; the large lady selling vegetables 26
