Durban - A historic Durban anti-apartheid site - opened by Nelson Mandela in 2002 - has fallen into a shocking state of disrepair, with fingers being pointed at the eThekwini Municipality for allowing it to be overrun by drug addicts and vandals.
The Passive Resistance Park in Umbilo Road, which has recently been earmarked for a “liberation heritage route”, is where the leaders of the Natal Indian Congress launched an important campaign in the struggle for the country’s freedom.
Seventy years later, the perimeter fence of the park has been broken in several places, the paving leading to the memorial is cracked and several tiles on the memorial itself have been broken.
Beer bottles, dirty clothes and rubbish lie strewn in the ankle-length grass. The stench of human faeces hangs thick in the air and overwhelms the senses.
“It is disgusting,” a municipal worker who did not want to be named told a team from the Daily News on Monday. “The truth is the municipality does not want to employ cleaners to look after the place.
“There are only two people employed to look after this big park and by the end of the month there will only be one person employed because the other’s contract will end.
“We have spoken to the managers but they don’t seem to listen. This place has been left to go down and down,” he said.
The worker pointed to a half-completed building near the memorial, saying it was supposed to have been toilets for the park.
“That is why people s*** in there (memorial) because the toilets that were supposed to have been built were never built. Even this memorial is not complete. What is needed here is security to prevent these whoonga boys from taking over the place,” he said.
Heather Rorick, of the Bulwer Community Safety Forum, said the park had become a great concern for the community.
“There are people who use the park to wash clothes and themselves. People often drive past in the morning and see stark naked people in the park.
“Safety is a big worry. Many people use the park to get to their transport - in Magwaza Maphalala (Gale) Street - and are sometimes attacked. It is sad that this has been allowed to happen because the park is a national heritage site and should be looked after by the city,” she said.
The park, in Umbilo Road, where it meets Magwaza Maphalala (Gale) Street was where the leaders of the Natal Indian Congresses, Dr Monty Naicker and Dr Yusuf Dadoo, launched the Passive Resistance Campaign against the Ghetto Act of 1946, which restricted Indian ownership of property.
In addition to being opened by Mandela in 2002, one of the stones at the entrance to the memorial was laid by him in 2001 and another by former president Thabo Mbeki and the former prime minister of India, Manmoham Singh, in 2006.
The Passive Resistance Park has recently been earmarked to be part of the South African National Heritage Council’s “liberation heritage route” in Durban to honour the people and places in the city that paved the way for democracy.
A spokesperson for the municipality said on Monday officials had been busy in meetings all day and would only be able to respond today to questions about the state of the heritage park.
Daily News