Vibrant university campus now bare shell
THE dilapidated shell of a building that houses car wash enterprises, in a street called University Road, swarming with taxis and vendors, is what remains of a once vibrant educational institution.
This is according to Durban history buff and writer Barbara MaudeStone, author of the historical book Dear Old Durban, who studied in the building known as City Buildings, which was a campus of the University of Natal.
“It was a wonderful campus. Very few people know today what a magnificent campus it once was,” she said, recalling that it was an island of non-racialism in the 1960s when apartheid became more entrenched by the day. “The students were mainly people who worked in the city as accountants, lawyers and school teachers, such as myself.”
Among the courses Maude-Stone took was speech and drama.
“The university put on productions by the speech and drama department, but we couldn’t put them on for the public because very few people knew City Building was non-racial.
“I presume that the university didn’t want it evident to the community. They kept it quiet.”
Through the university archives, Maude-Stone recently accessed a draft plan to relocate City Campus to Somtseu Road – one that never came about – and that after the university abandoned the building, it became part of the whites-only Technikon Natal, which called it Oldham House.
Indian students then attended the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island, which later became the University of Durban-Westville.
Maude-Stone said that judging by the minutes of university administration meetings that referred to “the problem”, without being specific about “the problem”, she suspected it was to do with phasing in apartheid. Maude-Stone also recalled hearing a radio report of the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, while in the building.
She added that she had a wonderful time studying at City Building.
“I probably would not ever have met my husband, who was an albino Indian. When I discovered he was albino, it didn’t matter.
“I also realised that City Building prepared me for life far more than Howard College would have done. I had a wonderful time there, with part of that being I learned we could all get along well together. All of us.”
Retired judge Thumba Pillay, who also studied there, said it was “selectively non-racial”.
“It depended on the political orientation of the lecturers,” he said, adding that he had good lecturers, including John Dugard, professor of international law.
“Law and speech and drama were integrated,” said Pillay.
Otherwise, there were, at times, prefabricated buildings behind Sastri College and beside City Building where people of colour had to study, the judge recalled.
Meanwhile, Maude-Stone said that today’s Change of Address form in the university publication to former alumni asks only which modern-day campus readers attended, omitting City Campus. “Few people know about it.”
UKZN said it was grateful to Maude-Stone “for reminding us of the history of the university” .
“The City Campus, or the Durban Technical Institute as it was known in the early 1900s, was the first incarnation of what would be renamed the Natal Technical College,” said spokesperson Normah Zondo.
“This was the foundation of the Natal University’s Durban Campus.
“Unfortunately, as the City Campus is no longer in existence, we cannot refer to it in our correspondence with alumni. Its entity has been replaced by Howard College Campus. The City Campus and its history is documented in the 100-year history of the university publication.”