At this point it must be noted that Umhlanga consists of a number of sub-communities within its boundary.
According to the images provided from the Tongaat Hulett website (Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011), the study area for this research is comprised of two elements; residential and commercial. Looking closely, Figure 4A depicts the districts that are within the company’s residential portfolio and for the purpose of this study, the area marked as number 10 (Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre) will be utilised. Similarly, Figure 4B illustrates the company’s area of commercial development and for this particular study, the district marked number 05 (Umhlanga Ridge) will be focused on. Looking at both the specified regions (numbers 10 and 05) and both figures holistically, it becomes clear that the Tongaat Hulett Company dominates a significant amount of the land ownership and has full control with regards to its usage.
With majority of its land conversions and developments occurring from 1996, it was the years prior to this that found Umhlanga’s small tourist town surrounded by extensive stretches of underdeveloped, agricultural land planted with sugarcane (Michel and Scott, 2005). Currently, the Tongaat Hulett Company is expanding and continuing to extend the range of developmental projects in the area. According to an online article published in 2013, the Tongaat Hulett Company released approximately forty-two hectares of prime Umhlanga Ridge land for transaction to any interested investor or consortium to establish and assemble a real estate base in the location of one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most sort after properties (Hancock, 2013; SA Commercial Prop News, 2013). While the existing development in the Umhlanga Ridge area has already attracted real estate investments worth over R50-billion, the Tongaat Hulett Company’s chief executive
officer, Peter Staude mentioned that, “the timing was right for this mega property transaction initiative to be undertaken to boost investment and further increase the pace of development in the region, building on the investment platform already created,” (Hancock, 2013: 1).
Being created under the Apartheid regime, the previously strict ‘whites only’ area of Umhlanga was comprised of upper class suburban developments and luxury tourist facilities all along the northern coastline of Durban (Michel and Scott, 2005; Nomico and Sanders, 2003; Van Vuren, 2014b). On the west of the coastline was the sugarcane farming belt with the towns of Phoenix, Verulam and Tongaat situated just beyond the belt and being used to house the Indian population who worked the sugarcane farmlands (Michel and Scott, 2005). Then in the area situated south west of Umhlanga was the significantly larger African townships of KwaMashu, Ntuzuma and Inanda (Michel and Scott, 2005). From the above description of Umhlanga’s location from a historical perspective, it is clear that Umhlanga was viewed as an island of wealth being surrounded by a sea of severe poverty (Kitchin, 2003; Michel and Scott, 2005).
Umhlanga, from a broader perspective, has embraced the need for mixed land uses in all areas of its development. In doing so, both areas – Umhlanga Ridge and the Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre (URTC) – are designed on the underlying principles of sustainability, safety and convenience for all working, residing or visiting the area (Bredell, 2012; Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011; Van Vuren, 2014c). By incorporating a mixed land use approach to its urban landscape, Umhlanga has allowed itself to become known as one of the Tongaat Hulett Company’s most successfully developed areas. Covering land uses such as medical, educational, residential, commercial and also recreational activities, this area is able to entertain and accommodate a range of income groups (Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011; Van Vuren, 2014c). With Umhlanga being planned on the previously mentioned underlying principles, the area has ensured that all the developments are connected through a variety of pedestrian-friendly roads, parks and public spaces which are further designed to allow the easy flow of traffic throughout the suburb (ASM Consortium, 2008;
Bredell, 2012; Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011). The above mentioned factor is one of the prominent reasons for the high demand of property in the Umhlanga area.
Figure 4A: The Tongaat Hulett Company’s Residential Portfolio (Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011)
Figure 4B: The Tongaat Hulett Company’s Commercial Portfolio (Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011)
4.3.1 The Gateway Shopping Centre
As highlighted in the previous sections, Umhlanga was once an area dominated by agriculture, farming of sugarcane and minimum development, however, as evident from the above discussions development of the Umhlanga Suburb has allowed Umhlanga to become a much sort after commercial, residential and tourist destination (ASM Consortium, 2008; Michel and Scott, 2005; Tongaat Hulett Development, 2011; Wood, 2008). With the Tongaat Hulett Company and its Moreland Developments sector focused on the conversion and development of former agricultural land to urban land use, the emergence of the Gateway Shopping Centre was seen as one of the prominent developments in Umhlanga (Kitchin, 2003; Michel and Scott, 2005).
Being the first significant development of the modern era to the Umhlanga area, the Gateway Shopping Centre was situated in the ideal area to allow a constant flow of energy into the surrounding developments (Bredell, 2012; Michel and Scott, 2005). Utilising ideas from already developed shopping centres such as the Mall of America and the West Edmonton mall in Canada, Gateway is said to be the largest shopping mall in Africa (KznDurban, 2011). Many environmentalists had protested against the development of Gateway shopping centre due to its size; the fact that the presence of the shopping mall has led to a severe loss of agricultural land in the Umhlanga areas and with further land being used for the construction of roads and other commercial and residential sites surrounding the shopping mall (Yusuf and Allopi, 2004).