The DLCC celebrates its 70-year milestone
MANY know the saying that it takes a village to raise a child.
For the past 70 years, in Durban’s Springtown-Springfield-Asherville districts, the David Landau Community Centre (DLCC) has been getting together with its members, associates and benefactors with one purpose – to help raise the health and living standards of its residents.
In 1948, the late Dr David Landau, a member of the medical staff of the erstwhile King George V Hospital, established the Springfield Health Care Centre.
This project inspired a broader community participation that evolved into the establishment of a community centre named in Dr Landau’s honour.
At the weekend, the DLCC celebrated its 70th anniversary at its centre with a gala dinner.
Among the invited guests were Dr Landau’s daughter, Dr Judith Landau, her sons David and Raoul, and Pamela Lessing, who all flew in from the US to attend the celebrations. Also there were Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, KZN MEC for Human Settlements Ravi Pillay, eThekwini Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer, freedom fighter and former DLCC executive member Swaminathan Gounden and Amar Ramlochan.
“The well-being and raised living standards of especially our youth and women depend on our ability to raise their health standards and educational attainment levels. That was my father’s life mission – to grow them from third to first world standards,” said Judith Landau.
Her father’s vision of higher student achievement, understanding the community he served and viewing them, youth and parents as partners saw him raise his office helper, Hastings Banda, to become Malawi’s first democratic president,” she said.
Landau is carrying the legacy of her father in keeping his mission alive around the world.
There are and have been a number of credible local organisations with long-standing relationships with their communities.
But few have built grassroots community resilience against widened development disparities, like access to education, health care, gender inequality and committing to mitigating these inequalities than the DLCC.
One person who has watched the centre through the prism of a South Africa ravaged by colonialism and apartheid, to a country of political stability, was Gordhan.
“The centre kept to its vision of social justice. Through its illustrious leaders and members of the Asherville Ratepayers’ Association, it inspired generations of residents with civic concerns that exacerbated their hardships to intensify their efforts for social justice,” he said.
Gordhan said that organisations like the Durban Housing Action Committee, under the leadership of the late DK Singh, who was also the centre’s past president, the Natal Indian Congress, the UDF and the SA Communist Party leveraged the trusted support of the centre through recruitment of its activists in building a strong coalition to advance the freedom struggle.
The centre, which forged alliances with organisations like the RK Khan Trust, the Medical and Dental Council of SA, the Community Chest, Fellowship of Retired Teachers and various sporting and cultural bodies, is to embark on its programme of long-term goals.
Its current president, Kenny Sarabeah, who has been associated with centre for the past 50 years, paid tribute to his predecessors, among whose eminence were Pauline Morel, Vasie Nair, DK Singh, KP Naidoo and R Gopaulsingh. For Sarabeah and his executive, it was time to re-focus the centre’s needs.
Besides a facelift, refurbishment of its interior and the transformation of the preschool premises to a conference centre, the building of a 160-bed old age home is in the pipeline.
In providing insights into various aspects of the centre, Sarabeah traced its tradition of service and engagement with the community.
He said the challenges were daunting – but not insurmountable.