Dr Imraan Buccus is senior research associate at ASRI.

It is long past time for us all to wake up and insist that every resident in Durban be treated with dignity and provided with the basic means for a decent life.

Tourism is, or was, central to the economy of Durban. You would think that the municipality would make protecting and developing the industry a key priority. But just as, at national level, electricity, the Post Office, the railways and more have been left to rot, so too has the deeply corrupt municipality in Durban squandered much of the tourism goose that lays the golden egg of employment.

Florida Road, which could once claim to be among the most attractive and convivial streets in the country, is now marred by ugly new developments, including fast food outlets and a monstrous building that looks like a parking garage. Rational urban planning has been abandoned for a free-for-all.

The city centre is full of uncollected rubbish and decaying buildings, and once elegant areas, like Musgrave, are in rapid decline.

But Durban's great asset has always, of course, been the magnificent Indian Ocean, and its wonderful open beachfront. It's Durban's most democratic space...