"Ways of (sight) seeing" in KwaZulu-Natal, part two, Mooi River ¹

KwaZulu-Natal, located between the Drakensberg mountains and the Indian Ocean, is dressed up for new neoliberal times. One of its towns, the Mooi River which is accessed by a toll-road, one-and-a-half hours out of Durban, is now infected with a disease called commodification. The marketization of basic services, the institution of cost recovery mechanisms and a rash of disconnections and evictions are overshadowing delivery, post-apartheid. Another town, Wentworth, lying at the South Basin's center, is well on its way of implementing "creative destructions" under the code words of "scientific management" by planning bureaucracies at the local level. Stunted children, choking air and a repellant aura is the reality for those living in Wentworth. Nestled at the foot of the Durban Berea is the Durban Botanic Gardens, a living, breathing embellishment of 14-and-a-half hectare land. Cash-strapped, the Botanic Gardens now depend on the generosity of the frugal public. Another breathtaking view, the Umgeni Road Temple which is also one of the province's oldest temples, has science fiction, romance, betrayal, the apocalypse, psychoanalysis and gods that are fallible. Durban's pre-eminent street of sin, Point Road, is roughly three kilometers from the harbor mouth to the corner of West Street where the cheaper hotels start. Finally, the Essenwood Road is a magical moment of individuals lighting a fire.