While the Cato Manor community faces the many challenges associated with deep poverty and the legacies of aparthied, there is a vibrant spirit of resilience here that makes this a wonderful community in which to invest time and energy. The Umkhumbane Schools Project is fortunate to be working in this place and among this group of schools. Together with our learners, their teachers, the schools’ leadership teams, and an array of supportive community partners from near and far, we are excited to be continuing in the long tradition of helping something vibrant and lasting take root in this place along the banks of the Umkhumbane River. There is great promise and potential here.
Located approximately 7 miles from the central business district of Durban with a population of approximately 90,000 people, the community of Cato Manor was established in the early 20th century on land that had been given to George Christopher Cato, the first Mayor of Durban, in 1865. Prior to that time, the land had been settled by a number of African chiefdoms from the 1630’s onwards, including the Nqondo and Ntuli clans. While the English name Cato Manor honours Cato, the name Umkhumbane references the isiZulu name for the river which runs through the area.
Beginning in 1914, Cato subdivided and sold smallholdings of the land to prominent Durbanites, who developed them as country estates. These landholders leased and sold plots to Indian market gardeners, many of whom had been recently released from labour contracts on the sugar plantations surrounding Durban. As the Indian market gardeners began leasing plots to African families, who at the time were forbidden from owning land. For a time, the Cato Manor area was a place where people of differing race groups lived together as a vibrant, interdependent community
Over the next decades, increasing industrialisation brought an influx of Africans from the rural areas to Durban, and Cato Manor became the site of a large and growing squatter settlement. By 1948, when the Nationalist Party came to power and began implementing its apartheid policies, it is estimated that there were appoximately 6000 shacks housing 40,000 informal dwellers in Cato Manor. Following a racially-charged incident between blacks and Indians in Durban in 1949, the area was rocked by looting and racial violence. By the early 1950’s, as the informal and unhoused population of Cato Manor was growing to an unmanageble size, the Durban City Council established an emergency housing camp there, known as Umkhumbane.
Following passage of the Group Areas Act, the entire Cato Manor area was declared a White Group area in 1954. Forced removals and the bulldozing of shack dwellings began in March of 1958, relocating Africans to the townships of KwaMashu, Lamontville and Umlazi and Indians primarily to the township of Chatsworth. This traumatic and painful chapter in Cato Manor’s history is vividly depicted in an engaging and informative exhibit at the Cato Manor Heritage Centre, currently located at Inththuko Junction, 75 Mary Thipe Road, Tel 031 261 3216. An exciting new Umkhumbane Museum site will be opening soon at the corner of Bellair and Harry Gwala Roads.
The last shack in Cato Manor was demolished in August of 1964. By the end of the 1970’s, the few remaining inhabitants of Cato Manor formed the Cato Manor Residents Association and previous residents began pressing to regain their land. In 1979, roughly one-fifth of the land of Cato Manor was deproclaimed as a White area, and by May of 1980 this land had been designated for occupation by Indians.
In the post-apartheid era, the population of Cato Manor burgeoned once again as Africans and Indians migrated towards the area in search of work and proximity to Durban. With the help of a major development project funded by the European Union and managed by the Cato Manor Development Association in the 1990’s, new life and organiational support was brought to this historically significant area. This community development project garnered international notice, and included the building of schools, community halls, clinics and libraries. Cato Manor is now home to five secondary schools, which are the cluster of schools within which The Umkhumbane Schools Project is based. Since 2003, following the closure of the CMDA, Cato Manor has been under the guidance of and energetic and forward-looking Area Based Management Team within the government of Ethekwini Municipality (Durban).
Today, Cato Manor once again includes a mix of African and Indian households in the township and informal settlement areas of Bonela, Cato Crest, Chesterville, Chesterville Extension, Mayville, Wiggins, and Ridge View. Rates of poverty and unemployment in the area are high, as is the incidence of HIV and TB. Housing infrastructure includes RDP homes and other working class houses as well as large informal settlements of shack dwellings. In this early part of the 21st century, the issue of housing remains highly contentious in the area, as new informal shack settlements continue to spring up. Protests over housing and municipal service-delivery are a fairly common occurrence.
While the Cato Manor community faces the many challenges associated with deep poverty and the legacies of aparthied, there is a vibrant spirit of resilience here that makes this a wonderful community in which to invest time and energy. The Umkhumbane Schools Project is fortunate to be working in this place and among this group of schools. Together with our learners, their teachers, the schools’ leadership teams, and an array of supportive community partners from near and far, we are excited to be continuing in the long tradition of helping something vibrant and lasting take root in this place along the banks of the Umkhumbane River. There is great promise and potential here.
References
Jackson, Allan, “Cato Manor,” Facts About Durban, https://www.fad.co.za/Resources/Cato/cato.htm, (accessed October 22, 2018)
Ngidi, Mphumeleli, “Unravelling the Complex History of Cato Manor, “ Pressreader, https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/post/20180627/281702615448398 (accessed October 23, 2018)
South African History Online contributors, “Cato Manor,” South African History online, https://www.sahistory.org.za/places/cato-manor (accessed September 25, 2018)
Ulwazi Programme contributors, “Cato Manor History,” The Ulwazi Programme. In https://www.ulwaziprogramme.org/2016/10/cato-manor-history/ (accessed October 1, 2018)
Wikipedia contributors, "Cato Manor," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cato_Manor&oldid=793365481 (accessed October 26, 2018)