Clairwood (M 14)

Name: Clairwood

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For years, the area suffered neglect under the apartheid government. The area was once a vibrant and busy suburb, but the residents have been ignored and the needs of rich businessmen have been promoted at their expense since the beginning of apartheid.

Residents hoped that with the new dispensation, and under the banner of Batho Pele " ( People First ) things would change. They didn’t. While the government was ‘consulting’, a number of illegal businesses started operating without licences, poisoning the residents. There has been a proliferation of Heavy Duty Trucking companies, Scrapyards, Panel beating / Spray boots, Granite Cutting, Waste Recycling, Oil Recycling, and many more. All of these make the neighbourhood unsafe for children.

http://www.abahlali.org/node/467


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The Clairwood area is zoned as industrial and residential. With regards to the residential core, only 27 % of zoned sites actually operate as residential premises. 73% is of the zoned residential sites are not in residential use. Absent landowners, many of whom left the area years ago, have leased land to businesses, which has resulted in industrial creep and impacted on the social fabric of the area. Legal and illegal businesses are a growing and common occurrence with little success with enforcement.


http://www.ethekwini.gov.za/durban/government/munadmin/media/press/land_issue


In the belief that the Umgeni River was an insurmountable barrier to the. development of Durban to its north, Joseph invested his money in "God's good earth" close to the Clairwood railway station that had been built on the new railway line from Durban. He accordingly bought (probably for considerably more than it would have cost him to purchase the whole of the area subsequently developed by Durban North Estates as Durban North) an area of approximately twelve acres of land running along Montclair Road, Montclair. He established his home on some three acres of land at the south easterly corner of Montclair Road and Southwold Avenue, Montclair, where he built a large double-storied home which he called "Grace Villa" after his eldest child Grace. He surrounded his home with a cavort hedge, which by the time of his death was some seven foot high and which, until approximately a year or so prior to his death, Joseph himself used to trim.

http://www.theclarksofclarkroad.com/papers_book6.html
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