Legacy of Apartheid: Problems

The most daunting issue facing the DMA today, as well as the rest of South Africa, is the terrible legacy of Apartheid. This is a problem that will stain the country for many years to come. The apartheid system originated as a method of one-sided economic protectionism and to the terrible detriment of those who suffered under it and are still suffering in its wake, it was a very effective one. Durban is an ultramodern city offering all of the services and comforts of the first world, yet it is rife with many third world problems. Durban's apartheid legacies are manifiest in a number of economic disparities and spatial distribution inequites.

Perhaps the most obvious symptom of the apartheid legacy is the significant portion of Durban's population living in informal settlements. Over one-third of the total population of the DMA, and over half of the Black population, live in sub-standard housing conditions. The spatial distribution of Durban's economic classes still reflects the structure of the apartheid city in which prosperous whites live in the city core and suburbs, middle-income and working class Indians live in the inner periphery, and working-class and unemployed blacks are confined to the far periphery or to rooming houses within the core.

Click here for an income distribution map Durban.