Durban (south Africa) Picture Gallery: South Africa´s Third Largest City

that was awesome! i ve also known  SA was a cool place for a vacation, humm seriously thinking about it now @constatin what about jo'burg( guess am in love with that city eh)

The skaters are HOT!

that is the place in africa to go

adconline you got that right, you took the words right out of my mouth

Hi guys,

I think we should give Nigeria sometime and things will get up to speed. I heard that the tallest Highrise is been proposed for Abuja. I hope that it gets constructed soon. If you go to www.skyscrapercity.com, under African forum, you will see that there are plans in place to uplift Nigeria.

The problem with  our African countries is that they leave the place to be dilapidated first and then after they want to fix it and it costs more. I'm a South African and even though I haven't been in Nigeria, I must say that I will be glad being one of the Super Powers in the World.

Jah, Durban is beutiful. I went there the past weekend to watch Manchester United playing one of our local teams.

I have attached the design of the 2010 Soccer Stadium. Constraction will be starting in September or so. They are busy with dismantling the other existing stadium, but they will leave the rugby stadium.


The guys in Durban mean business. Here is King Senzangakhona Stadium for 2010 and beyond.

Durban is very beautiful, but you are only seeing the nice buildings, the tourist attractions. Behind this city is a sea of Crime. Unfortunately, it has a very high death and violence rate. A person is mugged/robbed every 30 seconds in Durban. Nightlife is a nightmare if you're single. The streets are dirty, and public transport isn't always on time. Ten years ago, it was paradise, but it's turned into a monstrous place to live in.

By all means, I don't want to breakdown my city, but even I won't go out at night anymore. I live in the better part of the city, and my house has been broken into at least 4 times. The cops have only showed up once! I'm not being singled out, and I'm not white. I am black and proud,  But Even I got robbed on the corner of smith and West Street, by 3 black men. I guess they didn't kill me because I'm a brother. Normally they would not just rob you but at night you stand a fair good chance of being killed and rapped,  and not in that order.

By all means go visit; there are some beautiful places,  Just watch your wallet, and your life. Don't take my word for it, come here and experience it yourself.

Also, see this video of West Street. a Shopkeeper has a CCTV camera which shows how someone is mugged and the cops don't do a thing about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFN8WDEe6BE&mode=related&search=

Like our esteemed Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said "if you don't like it, pack your bags and leave".
Read:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/foreigndesk/detail?blogid=16&entry_id=6050
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwXSIDp3RSM&mode=related&search=

It's just not what it used to be, and everyone fears for their lives as these brazen outlaws roam the streets. We can't own guns, as it's against the law, so you can't protect yourself. You can't make a citizens arrest because you'll get killed. It's a lawless country. The middle class people are really trying to make a go of it, black & white together!! But we're all victims nowadays, not just the minority 2% white people,  we're all suffering.
I just hope, by a miracle, we'll get a new leader and new Cabinet one day, because we've lost confidence in the ANC.

I wish you all well, and if you do come to Durban, please watch your back, because the cops won't.
Cheetah 

Looks nice, but my only reservation is that you could be in spain or Florida from those pics, I want to be in a place and KNOW I am in Africa, modern Africa.

I will visit one day, maybe not Durban but definately Cape town.

I found Cheetah32's comment to be completely unfounded. Might have been true in the past but now there is a huge police presence in and around Durban's streets. Where did you get that every 30s statistic? I live in this city and there is a huge clean up operation to rid it of bad buildings.

Ultimately omoge, you will believe what you want to believe. All I can tell you about is what I see happening on the streets and how I feel when I walk there, and like I said before, I feel much safer.

Oh, and please don't get me wrong, I didn't say that 10 years ago it was worse and now its just a bed of roses. I can't vouch for that because I wasnt a citizen at the time. Btw, I've never met a people so proud of their country than Nigerians. You guys are always proud even though some things might not be going well. Wish South Africans were more like that.

Cool Photos. That's how a city should look like.

ok, now i have some time to respond. First let me deal with the issue of crime in SA

- Crime is a big problem in Joburg (biggest city), Durban (to some extent), Pretoria (not that much)
- Cape Town is probably the safest city in South Africa at the moment
- make sure you have someone who knows the place to take you around.
- people won't smile to you if they don't know you, because of crime no one trusts any stranger

- The reason for crime in SA is very complex, but it has to do with some of the following things:-

   - poverty among blacks in the midst of riches (SA is the 18th largest economy in the world with a GDP of
    $579 billion so there is a lot of money in the economy but this is skewed in favour of 10 % of the population
     (i.e. whites) who controls 90% of the economy). The economy only creates skilled jobs  (500,000 jobs were created by
     the economy last year, but most of the poor are unemployed as they do not have the skills that the economy wants).

   - illegal immigrants most of whom come into the country looking for jobs only to find that there
     is none for the unskilled and resort to crime to survive.  Now here things get very interesting
     You find the bank robbers who are typically Zimbabwean, Mozambicans and South Africans,
     or Crack dealers who are typically Nigerians and cellphone thieves who are South Africans
     or Zimbabweans but working for Nigerian syndicates etc and rapists who are typically
     South African. Perhaps SA is the only African country with 10 million illegal immigrants
     from the rest of Africa and thus the problems this presents are unique.

  -  Corrupt police who are also plagued by mismanagement and incompetency. Most of the police
      earn peanuts and so they are prone to being corrupted by criminals who dangle some carrots.

  -  Organized crime syndicates who work in the country organized by all sorts of people both from
      SA, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and other Eastern Europe.

-   Unlike most countries in Africa, there is a lot of loot to steal in SA (Consider the fact that there
     are 700,000 new cars bought in SA - that is 60% of all new cars bought in Africa) and the new
     government who were caught napping after a long celebration for the newly won victory against
     apartheid woke up and found the criminals had already setup shop and looting like crazy.

I hope this will give you some perspective on the problem of Crime which is also part of the reason why
there is Zenophobia as the ordinary South African starts feeling like all these illegal immigrants are here to
destroy their country, cause crime, take "their jobs" etc. Obviously this is not always the case, but the reality
on the presents a really complex situation.

what i would like to point out to people on this thread which i keep pointing to every person is that every country has its own problems.
There's no need for a pissing contest. Nigeria obviously has a lot of corruption which is holding the country back and poor infrastructure.
South Africa too has a fair share of its own problems. Crime, poverty, income inequality etc. So instead of Nigerians and South Africans
having a pissing contest, we simply have to acknowledge our own problems and get down to fixing them. Simple as that. I know that it might
be difficult for Nigerians to acknowledge that SA may be better in some respects than Nigeria, but Nigeria too is better than SA in some respects
too. Its just natural. So i find this pissing contest a little childish if you ask me. I have been to Nigeria and i know what its like there, and i could
right a lot of negative things about your country too if i wanted, but i just don't see the point, if you know what i mean.