Born in Durban and having lived for over 20 years on the corner of Leopold and Albert streets; celebrating Christmas, Eid and Diwali with friends and neighbours and using what was a dead end as a sports ground after rush hour and on weekends; it pains me to hear how our happy hunting ground has, over the years, degenerated into a slum for whoonga addicts.

We played cricket with a tennis ball and a minerals crate or soccer with a rubber ball painted white so that the darkness in this dead end at night never stopped us.

We were often chased and even picked up by the police. It was all in good fun.Cigarettes, drugs and alcohol were not in our vocabulary.

We all moved away – to better areas or poorer districts, some overseas and others died.

The streets of Durban began to lose their character after 1994. Our street lost its youth.

Our new youth have, like Leopold Street, died even before they have lived – like the majority of our children.

Ebrahim Essa

Durban

Categories: Education News