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From Preface: Although East London exists today as one of the major ports of South Africa, the city appears to have been forgotten by historians. Little has been done to chronicle its history. In 1932, Bruce Gordon set out to initiate this research and he investigated East London's history to the end of 1865. However, Gordon's thesis, though accurate, is short and inadequate by today's standards. Furthermore, no-one continued from where Gordon left off. Several articles have been written over the previous six decades, each dealing with aspects of East London's past but these, on the whole, are inaccurate and misleading. The time is ripe, therefore, to begin again the research into the history of East London. East London owed its foundation to the state of unrest which existed on the eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope between 1834 and 1847. Although the geographic and climatic conditions were in the port's favour, East London remained in a suppressed condition until about 1870. It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the factors which gave rise to this truncated growth. The thesis will examine first the wider perspective of imperial and colonial policy in which East London was conceived and in which it had its early existence. The implications of this policy for East London at the various levels of the port's development will be explored in subsequent chapters. British and Cape colonial policy, however, evolved in a chronological sequence and so the examination of this policy likewise will tend to follow a chronological pattern within each chapter. The establishment of Port Rex in November/December 1836 enters into East London's story in several ways: its political development, the creation and development of the harbour on the Buffalo River, the evolution of trade, the growth of the community and the status of the black population at the mouth of the Buffalo River. It has been found necessary, therefore, to refer often to this beginning of East London's history. Although several theses have already been written which deal with topics related to British Kaffraria, none of these do more than allude to the creation and development of East London. Although, for example, the German Settlers played an important role in the growth of the port, Schnell's thesis hardly mentions the two communities at Panmure and Cambridge. The research for this thesis led me to two important and little known sources of early information, both in Cape Town. The first was the multiple volumed "Unsorted Archives" on East London which consists of reports and letters to the Resident Magistrate. It is a treasure chest of information on East London's early years. The second source was G.M. Theal's newspapers, The Kaffrarian Recorder and East London Shipping Gazette and, later, The Kaffrarian, East London's second newspaper which was believed to have been lost until copies were discovered recently in the South African Library in Cape Town. Theal, later prominent as a historian, had a clear insight into the problems which confronted the community at East London and the editorials of his newspaper make interesting reading. East London's first newspaper is, unfortunately, still lost. It was the East London Times which had its first issue in January 1863, and lasted a mere two months. It consisted of half a sheet of foolscap printed on one side, the other side being left blank, the editor of the King William's Town Gazette wrote, "'for want of room' or from lack of matter."

Along the South African coast between Cape Town and Durban, a distance of 822 miles, are the two major ports, Port Elizabeth and East London. These two ports, rivals in some ways, have histories that are closely linked. Their harbours have been built at two of the most favourable spots along a coastline poorly endowed with natural harbours. East London, the fourth harbour of the Union of South Africa, is the only river port of any consequence, and had to win the mechanical fight against nature and the fight against prejudice that contended that her position was too close to a troublesome frontier. After a hundred years of growth, East London is a mature town, with the residential and industrial areas clearly defined. Her expansion will be along the lines of planned zoning. (2) Her population in 1950 was 910,195 of which 43,195 were European and 39,698 Native. Besides being a port, East London is a prominent holiday resort and, of recent years, is developing as an industrial town. A striking feature is the clean aspect of the town. Those two "miracles" of South Africa, the discovery of diamonds and the discovery of gold, stimulated the growth of East London; especially the discovery of diamonds since Kimberley was about 450 miles from this, its nearest harbour. But the river mouth at East London had very little natural advantage over the other river mouths along the coast. There was at the Buffalo Mouth no outstanding, decisive merit. In many matters, such as the railway, the bridge, the water supply, there was doubt, uncertainty and bickering, with subsequent decisions to shelve the latter or make use of a temporary expedient, because there were many mediocre alternatives but none which was supremely suitable. In 1852, Bishop Gray wrote, "East London ... .has as few natural advantages as any place I have seen claiming to be a port. I could have walked across the river without getting wet above the knee." Intro., p. i-ii.

Youth crime has been and still is a social problem in South Africa. It is a problem that shakes the very fabric of the society. The problem with the youth in modern society is both a national concern and an important subject for academic study. High school environments are where youths converge for learning purposes, but they have also turned to hotspots for crime. Different theories on explanations for high school crime have been developed over time. This particular study, conducted in 2008, adopts the criminal opportunity theory to study the social, economic and the demographic characteristics of selected environments in which high schools are located to determine significant factors that are conducive for high schools to be crime hotspots. Three schools were selected in different neighbourhoods in East London for the study. The study used an intensive case design technique to conduct the research. Different characteristics of the communities in which the schools that were studied were located showed different crime pattern. The Law enforcement agencies also realize these differences and they try to address crime issues in various communities in the study areas individually

In this study an attempt is made to trace and analyse the changing nature of African youth in urban areas, with particular reference to the East London locations. The period covered is the period from the 1940s to the end of 1992. In common wisdom, an impression is often created that African youth is a homogeneous grouping. This has been particularly the case in the 1980s, when the youth of this country took to the streets and challenged the status quo in a manner unknown in South Africa's recorded history. However, the main conclusion of this study is that the African youth is not homogeneous, and has never been during the period under review. It is argued in the study that the youth divides into various categories which at times interact with one another, but are at times antagonistic to each other. It has been stressed though, that the various categories have not remained the same. Almost all underwent various changes and transformations. Some of the changes and transformations were radical, leading to the disappearance of some categories, for example, the old distinction of 'school' and 'red' youth. Where such took place, new categories have emerged, even in instances where the intentions were to bring the various categories under the roof of a single category, for example, bringing various categories under the wing of the political youth, or comrade (qabane), as was the case in the 1980s. In tracing the changing nature of African youth in urban areas, the underlying argument has been that there is no evidence of a single youth culture ever prevailing for long. This study attempts to explain why such a culture was not possible. Only a grasp of historical process will, moreover, help to explain the changing youth scene. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1993.

This thesis critically examines the nature and purpose of a series of four town-hall-like meetings, the Community Dialogues, held in the townships and suburbs of East London, South Africa, in 2009. They were undertaken by a mainstream, commercial newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, under the banner of the worldwide public journalism movement. Following Christians et al (2009), the thesis sets out a normative framework of media performance in a democracy, including a detailed and critical normative theory of the ‘facilitative role’ proposed and developed by Haas (2007), one of the public journalism movement’s key advocate-theorists. It also draws on a variety of theoretical frameworks and perspectives in the fields of Political Studies and Media Studies to provide an analytical overview of the complex matrix of political and media contexts – at the macro (global), meso (national) and micro (local) levels – that have helped give impetus to the Community Dialogues and also shaped their ongoing operation as a public journalism strategy in the South African context. Following a critical realist case study design, the thesis goes on to provide a narrative account of the Dialogues based on in-depth interviews exploring the motivations, self-understandings and perceptions of those journalists who originated, directed and participated in this project, as well as observation of a Community Dialogue, and an examination of some of the journalistic texts related to the Dialogues. This primary data is then critically evaluated against normative theories of press performance, especially Haas’s ‘public philosophy’ of public journalism. The thesis found that apart from their undoubted success in generating a more comprehensive and representative news agenda for the newspaper, the Dialogues often fell short of Habermas’s (1989) proceduralist-discursive notion of the ‘deliberating public’, which sees citizens share a commitment to engage in common deliberation and public problem solving. This can be attributed to a number of problems, including some important theoretical/conceptual weaknesses in the Community Dialogues’ project design, the relative immaturity of the project, the domination of civil society by political society in the South African political context, and a number of organisational constraints at the Daily Dispatch. On the other hand, the newspaper’s editorial leadership has shown clear commitment to the idea of expanding the project in the future, establishing a more a more structured programme of community engagement, and nurturing a more sustainable public sphere, including the building of a more dialectical relationship between the Dialogues and civil society.

The world is faced with a population explosion, and cities are becoming ever larger. The world population will grow from its present 3500 million to more than 7 000 million by the year 2 000. The majority of cities are thus faced with the problem of housing vast numbers of people living in single family dwellings forming low density urban sprawl. Conditions are no different in South Africa where the present white population of about four million is expected to grow to between six and seven million by the year 2000. The present housing requirement (1970-75) for Whites, based on low and high population projections, is 32 732 and 40 150 houses respectively. From 1995-2000 the figures will have risen to 42 742 and 65 580 respectively. At that rate sprawl here will reach alarming proportions unless it can be curtailed by higher density housing. As the population trend does not seem likely to be reversed the problem lies in how to provide housing for an escalating population but at the same time to reduce urban sprawl and provide satisfactory living conditions.

The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), situated in the second largest province in South Africa, the Eastern Cape, is an unfortunate victim of low economic development and high unemployment. The South African Government, through the Department of Trade and Industry, identified the need for SMMEs to address these issues with the inception of the White Paper on National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business in South Africa over 20 years ago. SMMEs in South Africa are noted to have a failure rate of around 70% which does not bode well for the efforts to improve economic development and reduce unemployment through SMMEs. This research sets out to determine the significance of variables such as human resources, financial resources, information systems, government assistance and competitive intelligence on the sustainability of SMMEs. The researcher examined the literature relating to the challenges and issues faced by SMMEs with particular emphasis on the use of competitive intelligence as a tool to assist in sustainability. The literature review was followed by an analysis and interpretation of a qualitative study of SMMEs within the BCMM. Through an analysis of the results it was possible to determine the nature of the relationships between the independent variables and sustainability. Finally, the researcher was able to make recommendations based on the research.

From Ch. 1: The object of this study is to consider the utilisation of East London Harbour and its relative importance in the South African import and export trade to 1975. The principal harbours of the Republic of South Africa are Table Bay (Cape TOwn), Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth), Buffalo Harbour (East London) and Durban, and Walvis Bay in South West Africa. Small harbours suitable only for coastal shipping are Mossel Bay, Simonstown, Lamberts Bay, St. Helena Bay and Port Nolloth in the Republic and LUderitz in South West Africa. Two harbours, Saldanha Bay and Richards Bay are at present being built. The ports of the Republic of South Africa and South West Africa are owned by the Government, are constructed, controlled and operated by the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, under the direction of the Minister of Transport, and are managed by the General Manager, whose headquarters are in Johannesburg.

This thesis is a study in Urban History which explores the development of East London, a port in the Border region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, through four decades of municipal control from 1873 to 1914. The town had been established in 1847 as a supply route for the British forces during the War of the Axe (7th Frontier War) but the frontier nature of the port led to economic and physical stagnation during its initial 25 years of existence. Indeed, by the time that the municipality was established in 1873, there were still no streets beyond cart tracks, no established water supply, and sanitary conditions were medieval. The Town Council therefore had much to occupy its attention but lack of positive leadership resulted in failure to capitalise on prosperous economic conditions, while a depression in the 1880's led to a further truncation of growth. It was only in the 1890's that a combination of economic growth and vibrant leadership brought about rapid civic advance, with large-scale expenditure on street construction, as well as the establishment of electricity and a tramway system. The outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 slowed progress, however, and a post-war depression placed renewed stress on the municipality. The thesis examines the progress of the town on a broad front, dealing with the issues of economic fluctuations, the growth of the harbour as the heart of the trading sector, the physical advance of the municipality, the search for a viable water supply, the evolution of public health and sanitation, and the establishment of the port as a coastal resort. In addition, it studies the conflict of social attitudes among the townspeople, the evolution of racial segregation, and the effects of the Anglo-Boer War on the town, with the influx of some 5 000 Uitlander refugees and the establishment of a Boer concentration camp. A final chapter attempts an analysis of the reasons behind the Town Council's inability to make the best use of its opportunities to foster the development of East London.