I never imagined writing these words: when crime rhymes with grime in a city I got my spurs in survival, it’s time I hitched up my caravan and moved on.
After a very long while I decided to leave the safety of my workplace and venture into Pixley KaSeme Street to purchase stationery.
Wow what a venture it was. I was shocked how much Durban CBD had decayed. Is this what freedom has brought into this city?
Besides, as my learned friend and muse excellency Ebrahim Patel lamented elsewhere, eThekwini has become a lawless haven for pimps and pushers. No viable or effective law man in sight. Motorised transportation buzzing about like hornets driven crazy.
And it’s where hundreds of thousands of people eke out a living. I feel pity for those who have to traverse along these routes as they scurry about like worker ants with a purpose. Yes, a humanity running the gauntlet every working day with eyes on their feet colliding like bubbles in a fish bowl — ever wary of the perils in a lawless world.
I who has perfected my survival skills in these streets for over four decades no longer recognise them. Even the Dr Yusuf Dadoo — Dennis Hurley / Cathedral Road — Victoria Mxenge Street hub has mutated into an unrecognisable blurr of frenetic activity.
I recognise the golden dome of the Juma Musjid and the landmarked Madressa and Ajmeri arcades. But that's about all. Even the Badsha Peer Shrine close to the Warwick Avenue triangle and the entangled grave yards, have become no go zones for me.
The deafening noises around and about them sound like a musical score from a horror movie. This is where the past (me) meets with the present and looking at a future uncertain, let alone unreliable and imperfect.
SABER AHMED JAZBHAY, Newlands West
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