Chatsworth, Durban

Chatsworth, is a large Indian township in Durban, South Africa, which was created as a result of the Apartheid Government's Group Areas Act. This area, created in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was populated by those removed from their homes in mixed-race and whites-only areas. Because of this, parts of Chatsworth are still an area of extreme poverty separated from the developed areas of Durban. However there are also large middle class and wealthy areas.

Chatsworth today comprise an overall area with 64 minor suburbs, of which Lamontville at the East, now also is a part. With the neighbour township to the East being Durban South, the borderline of Chatsworth is situated just 4km from the Indian Ocean. The southern border of the township, is drawn by the river from Ntshongweni Dam, with Umlazi being situated at the southern side of the river.

History

In the 1940s, The Pegging Acts and the Ghetto Act were passed. These acts gave the government the right to remove and destroy shacks and small self-made shelters, with the intention of improving sanitary conditions. This led to the Group Areas Act of June 1950, which designated certain areas for the Whites and other areas for Indians, Coloureds and Africans. Indians were removed from areas such as Mayville, Cato Manor, the Clairwood and Magazine Barracks and the Bluff, and were placed in areas like Riverside and Prospect Hall and at Duikerfontein and Sea Cow Lake.

During the later 1940s and early 1950s, there were...
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