Durban - The picture of old Durban this week is an early picture of Isipingo Beach taken from the Facebook site Durban Down Memory Lane.
The town of Isipingo was built in the 1920s on a high ridge of sand at the mouth of the Isipingo river overlooking the ocean.
It formed its town council by 1925, and was originally a white area, but was declared an Indian area in 1963 under the Group Areas Act. Today about 25000 people live in the suburb.
The town was named after the river whose name in isiZulu is thought to be derived from the intertwined cat-thorn shrubs present in the area, or the river’s winding course.
Once, this was one of the finest estuaries and mangrove habitats on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, but industrial development has left it seriously degraded.
Originally the Mlazi river fed into the estuary but the diversion of rivers and canalisation to create land for industrial development reduced the flow of water into the estuary to less than 6%.
Pollution has come from industry as well as from informal settlements, sewerage works and solid waste.
Today, as photographer Shelley Kjonstad’s pictures show, the beach is popular with local fishermen.
The Independent on Saturday appeals to readers who have old pictures of Durban and other parts of the province to send them to us for consideration.
If any readers are featured in the old picture, we will do our best to recreate the scene with them in it again.
Readers sending pictures digitally - images should be about 1MB - can address them, with the relevant information, to [email protected]
If the pictures are in hard copy format, they can be posted to The Editor, Old Pictures, The Independent on Saturday, PO Box 47549, Greyville, 4023.
The Independent on Saturday
