As this is being written, another successful Durban International Boat & Leisure Show is drawing to a close – the 8th since 2004, when the inaugural boat show was held at Wilson’s Wharf.
Regardless of attendance and income generated, having shows such as this at the Durban Marina helps remind us that the harbour is not just about commercial shipping. In fact, Durban Bay is home to a substantial variety of recreational activities, worth hundreds of millions of rand and involving thousands of people.
It can therefore claim its own special place within Africa’s busiest harbour – a harbour that is also the economic gateway to South Africa and the wider SADC region.
It is a credit to Transnet and to Transnet’s predecessors that a symbiotic relationship has always been possible among those using Durban Bay for recreation and the authorities responsible for the commercial activity of the port.
Durban may be quite unique among Southern African ports for the sheer amount of recreational activity taking place among the hurly-burly of ships arriving and leaving, tugs criss-crossing the harbour and work boats bustling about supplying ships at the outer anchorage.
Where else can you find people kayaking or canoeing in the early morning or late afternoon, or on weekends find people kite-surfing in the quieter regions of the bay? What other port in South Africa continues to have people fishing from their boats in the harbour, in the very channels where large ocean-going ships operate?
Where else can people wander about on the sandbanks, pumping the mud for cracker shrimps to be used for bait, within a stone’s throw of huge ships passing in the nearby channels?
Until the harbour entrance was widened and deepened, port authorities permitted full access to the North Pier and limited access to the South.
This is no longer the case, but we should continue seeking public access to the rebuilt North Pier, with its excellent views across Durban and the shipping channels.
We are told we have been barred from the area for safety reasons, but those given are mostly ridiculous – there is no other description for it.
For 130 or more years the public enjoyed access to the North Pier and behaved responsibly. Any problems were dealt with in a sensible and low-key manner.
The ISPS (International Ship and Port Facility Security) Code, introduced in 2004, was never intended to keep people away from shipping or harbours in this manner, as can be seen in numerous other international ports including Rotterdam, Antwerp, Amsterdam and the German ports. In these ports, mostly built upstream along navigable rivers, the public has access to sections of the banks where they can view the world’s shipping passing from a short distance away.
Even in the US, the home of ISPS, this is so, as it is elsewhere. Sydney in Australia has numerous public vantage points overlooking the harbour. Few of these ports have general photographic restrictions – in Sydney, they recognise that their harbour is a valuable tourist attraction that boasts not only some wonderful views but several icons that represent not just their city but Australia itself, such as the opera house.
Lady in White
Here we don’t have a Durban Bay bridge, or opera house, but we do have buildings of considerable architectural and cultural merit. We also have statues, monuments and other artifacts that possess strong purpose and value. Yet how many people know about them?
Take the Ocean Terminal Building, a structure of significant value erected in the days of passenger liners. The building is now used as an office area for Transnet National Ports Authority and is no longer accessible. How many of the staff working there take note of the reliefs and motifs that adorn this fine building, all of them products of a highly respected artist?
And what about that statue next to it of the Lady in White, Durban’s own Perla Gibson, which is lost in a little car park overlooking the Point Docks from where she so inspiringly sang to South African and Commonwealth troops going to war. Isn’t it time the statue was moved to a more public arena, with the best choice being a reopened North Pier?
Our North Pier is simply too much of an asset to be kept restricted, especially as its designers have provided an excellent protected walkway complete with lighting and a hip-high sea wall. So please, Mr Port Manager, give some more thought to reopening the North Pier. You owe such a benefit to the people of this fine city.
Around the harbour are many other examples of fine architecture. Mahatma Gandhi Road (Point Road), leading to the Point Waterfront, boasts the restored Queen’s Warehouse, once a sorting shed for the Natal Government Railway and now back in use as offices for Transnet personnel. The building frames one side of a “door” to the burgeoning Point Precinct, linking past, present and future.
Talking of the railway, Point Station dates from 1888 and is older than the better-known Durban Station near the Post Office. Opposite are rows of wonderful old buildings – some with only their façades preserved, but a street packed with tales of yesteryear. Several have already undergone restoration, another is now the Docklands Hotel.
And who doesn’t know of that exquisitely preserved Port Office at the end of the road? All are potential visitor delights that will help turn the Point Precinct into a place of interest in the future.
Elsewhere in Durban harbour, tucked away in places like Maydon Wharf, are many other architectural delights. One such example is the Illovo Sugar warehouse which fronts directly onto the wharfside in a manner that was once common. Several other fine old buildings can be found in the roads around Maydon Wharf, often unnoticed because anyone venturing there might be too busy dodging the trucks and trains to find time to admire them.
Everyone knows our famous Sugar Terminal, three buildings which could be said to be icons of Durban. Not quite the Sydney Opera House, but certainly distinctly Durban. Here organised tours are available on a regular basis. This is an example of how the commercial side of the maritime industry can successfully interface with the needs of the public.