The people of Durban have spoken about how they see the future of our vibrant and bustling African city: safer, cleaner, tourist-friendly, caring and a job-creator. Imagine Durban launched the “My Best Idea” competition in which citizens, young and old, were invited to give their ideas, views and opinions of how they would view South Africa’s third biggest city in the 21st century. The competition received an enthusiastic response from the public.  The judging panel selected a number of winners, each receiving an Imagine Durban-branded hamper consisting of a R500 gift voucher, water bottle, gift bag and lanyard. 

Respondents submitted ideas ranging from how the municipality and its citizens could work together to create a safer city with emphasis on Durban becoming an environmentally sustainable city and that the city should become more accessible while creating wealth for its people and carving a new image as more caring and empowering city. Uppermost was a call for a “safer and prosperous” city, in which the youth – tomorrow’s citizens - should be actively involved in the making of an international city where tourists and locals will walk freely and basic services such as housing shortage, unemployment, poverty, HIV-AIDS and xenophobia will be a thing of the past. 

An underlining theme was the role of education as a key factor in promoting core human value systems, non-racialism and eradicating crime.  Here’s a sample of some of the winning ideas: One entrant noted the city’s “very high population of  street-children and suggested that education on fostering children could be the answer, while pointing out that these children were vulnerable to criminals. Children need to be “loved” by a caring city. Job-creation would put an end to the high crime rate, she added. 

Other ideas were that Durban take on a new image as a “friendly city” where billboards should highlight human values and that city buildings be painted bright colours to make the centre vibrant and exciting.   A further suggestion for a “safer city” called on the authorities to order drivers caught for speeding and drink-driving, particularly during the festive season, to spend 24 hours with the families of victims of road accidents. It was also suggested that the eThekwini Municipality could protect the underground water supply by encouraging information technology and electronic hardware suppliers to dismantle disused computers and electronic equipment to prevent water contamination and this initiative would create jobs for the unemployed people. 

Another enterant went a step further and suggested that individuals should donate their old computers to others and also assist in training people in computer skills.  With regards to public transport it was suggested that that Durban followed other major cities where transport was linked by inter-city bus and rail systems. 

Other ideas called on the city to invest in skills development and training for the youth for school holidays to be turned into art festivals to keep creative young people busy. And for tour guides to be recruited and trained to create work for the unemployed. 

All the ideas that have been submitted are being used to help contribute to the long term plan that Imagine Durban project is currently drafting.   

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