Engaging with new ideas and an innovative vision for what Durban as a port city could be like was the aim of the symposium held at DUT Steve Biko Campus recently.The Urban Futures Centre (UFC) and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) jointly hosted the first ‘Inclusive City Symposium’, focusing on the port of Durban.More than discussing the port as it exists in the present, the symposium explored alternate visions of what the port and surrounding areas could be like in the future. The symposium also looked at opportunities that these other visions may hold in relation to people, tourism, sustainable energy, and economic development without destructive social and environmental costs.

Academics, civil society, private and public sector delegates at the symposium were Sarah Bracking (UKZN), Jacquie Subban (Urban Futures Consulting, Bobby Peek (Groundwork) and DUT’s Prof Monique Marks (UFC), Des D’Sa (SDCEA), to name but a few. Adding to the conversation was Bobby Peek, groundWork’s Director, who fights for environmental justice in Durban. According to Peek’s organisation, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) had recently won a protracted battle with Transnet after it was announced that the Durban dig-out port project would be delayed until 2032. This was an important victory for SDCEA and the communities it represented like Clairwood and Wentworth, as it means retention of the community space as a residential zone, and no displacement of residents and workers such as the old Durban airport farmers. “However, the organisation, also recently stated that the fight for a community-driven development model in south Durban was far from over.

“In many of the resistances of the community that I engage with today, we are challenging new coal mines, proposed coal fire in power stations in this day and age of time, it is disgraceful. I witness a bankruptcy of vision and imagination of our political leaders. We have just rolled over and forgot the promise of the new future. So we need to move on, we cannot create a new future by implementing the mistakes of the past,” he stressed.

Looking at the economic costs of having a port city in Durban, Bracking from UKZN, said the economics of investing R250 billion in a container port in Durban where costs are already the highest in the world, and it did not make standard economic sense. She also added that the average household Clairwood income was around R10001-R3000 per month and 23,4 % of the population in Clairwood earned less than R1000 per month; and many of those marked with less than R500 were marked as unemployed. “If the community were to be moved, how will they survive financially if they can’t presently?” she added.

However, Subban from Urban Futures Consulting said it was best to focus on a smart city approach and look at solutions and understand the influence of technology on urban planning, the environment and the economy; and the way forward was to plan and build using multi-disciplinary teams.
Further discussions were held on working harbours that meet South Africa’s
needs, the integrated freight and logistics strategic framework and action plan for eThekwini, mapping perceptions of the Clairwood business community and the water quality in the port.

Prof Marks reiterated that in short the symposium ended with a general feeling that dialogue between the different interest groups needed to continue, with an understanding that all parties share an interest in economic growth.
“The main issue is finding a route for such growth that does not impact on communities more affected by the proposed port development, as by Transnet and the national government. In my view, the next step should be a roundtable conversation with leaders of the various interest groups, facilitated by the Urban Futures Centre. Everyone was in agreement that getting the port development ‘right’, and ‘smart’, is important. Doing this badly without the necessary support and buy-in is likely to create a lot of discontent and backlash,” added Prof Marks.

Pictured: Jacquie Subban (Urban Futures Consulting, Bobby Peek (Groundwork), Sarah Bracking (UKZN) and DUT’s Prof Monique Marks (UFC), at the symposium.

—-Waheeda Peters