This study highlights the role social capital plays in promoting relationships within and between organizations so that they are able to act with common cause. For years relationships between parks and local communities have hinged upon access to, and use of natural resources that are more abundant within parks. Contestation over these resources has overtime led to covert, and in most cases open conflict between these two stakeholders in conservation. Intrinsic in relationship building is social capital. Using the case of the community of Mkambati this study presents both historical and, as developed in recent organizational studies, mental models as critical variables through which social capital evolves and sustains itself within organizations. The argument advanced in this study is that social capital plays an important factor in helping previously displaced communities to regain their land. Relationships play a pivotal role in bonding people, communities, and organizations. Secondly, this study provides a historical perspective of the role played by the community of Mkambati in challenging dispossession of their land. Since the expropriation of their land, the community of Mkambati has relied on bonding social capital in their resolve to regain this land. As this study demonstrates, trust, reciprocity, solidarity and empowerment are some of the properties of social capital that have bonded the community of Mkambati in the struggle for the restitution of their land. The success of the community of Mkambati in regaining their land is also attributed to this community’s resilience to withstand challenges it faced through its protracted battle to have its land back. This resilience, as this study demonstrates emanates from this community’s reliance on social capital. Also, and equally important, the robustness of the community of Mkambati to resist change is founded on relational capital drawn from the shared mental model of injustice – the wish to have their land back. This relational capital was continuously reinforced by the actions this community resorted to achieve this goal. Land restitution and the emergence of a democratic government made redundant the strongly shared mental model that bound people together for many years. With the return of the land to the people of Mkambati, many new opportunities arose around access to, and use of resources. These opportunities are framed as mental models so that whereas in the past the people held a shared mental model, now they differ among themselves according to their preference for access to, and use of resources. It is suggested that, if not managed, opportunistic behaviour could lead to the privatization of resources and an erosion of the present common property regime and a weakening of a community social capital. On this understanding it is prudent for the community of Mkambati to instil a new shared mental model that will enable this community to use relational connectedness and relational capital to enhance collaborative behaviour necessary for the community’s realization of opportunities associated with the return of common property through land restitution. This study highlights the importance of understanding the role of mental models in sustaining social capital and directing collective action. This study suggests that particularly in the context of common property, explicit attention should be given to understanding the diversity of mental models held by stakeholders, and to a process that constructs and sustains a strategic shared mental model. This is because mental models are perceived to provide a foundation for social learning which is necessary to sustain social capital that promotes collective action within the community. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Forests in the Drakensberg Mountains, although generally small and fragmented, represent a wealth of globally significant biodiversity. This is especially true of the invertebrate fauna, which includes a range of localized endemic species. Ground dwelling, flightless invertebrates living in forests show relative immobility and poor dispersal abilities compared to birds, butterflies and other animal taxa. The naturally fragmented state of Afrotemperate forests also geographically isolates these taxa. No quantified, systematic surveys of flightless invertebrates have been conducted in Afrotemperate forests in the Drakensberg Mountains. This means that, to date, invertebrates have not been considered in the management of these habitats. However, invertebrates are vitally important in ecosystem functioning and maintenance and must be included in management plans. This study quantified flightless invertebrate diversity in Afrotemperate forest patches in the Drakensberg by investigating spatial patterns and seasonal changes in invertebrate diversity. The broad objectives were to: 1) Determine the appropriate spatial scale at which conservation of flightless invertebrates should be implemented; 2) Determine which season, taxa and sampling methods are most suitable for biodiversity assessment and monitoring in Afrotemperate forest; and 3) Investigate methods of prioritizing Afrotemperate forests for conservation of flightless invertebrate diversity. Seventeen forest patches in six valleys in four Drakensberg reserves (Rugged Glen Nature Reserve, Royal Natal National Park, Cathedral Peak and Injisuthi) were sampled in the summer of 2004/2005. In addition, three forests at Injisuthi were sampled in March, June, September and December 2004 to enable seasonal comparisons. Sampling methods included soil samples, leaf litter samples, pitfall traps, active search quadrats and tree beats. The study focused on terrestrial molluscs (Class Gastropoda), earthworms (Class Annelida), onychophorans (Class Onychophora), centipedes (Class Chilopoda), millipedes (Class Diplopoda) and ants (Class Insecta). Target taxa were sorted to morphospecies and then identified to species by taxonomic experts. Seventy-two species and a total of 5261 individual specimens from the six target taxa were collected. Species composition of sites varied along the north-south gradient, and species turnover (beta diversity) was related to the distance between sites. Flightless invertebrate species richness and community structure fluctuated seasonally. Therefore, I recommend that sampling should take place during the wet season (summer months). Molluscs were the most suitable taxon among those surveyed to represent flightless invertebrate diversity and leaf litter samples and active search quadrats are the most suitable sampling methods for flightless invertebrates in forest. This study compared approaches to prioritizing Afrotemperate forests in terms of their invertebrate diversity using ranked species richness with complementarity indices of species presence/absence, taxonomic distinctness (orders, families and genera) and endemicity. There was no consistent spatial trend in the priority ranking of forests based on species richness. Complementarity based on species richness only required eight out of 17 forests to represent all 62 species. Although complementarity based on taxonomic distinctness and endemicity required fewer sites, not all species were represented. The minimum set of sites identified using complementarity based on species richness and augmented with information on taxa of conservation importance (local endemic and threatened species) was the most rigorous approach to prioritizing Afrotemperate forest patches in the Drakensberg for flightless invertebrate conservation. Urgent conservation interventions are required because invertebrates play a critical role in ecosystem functioning. As many forest patches and invertebrate populations as possible should be protected to conserve the full complement of invertebrate species of the region. Special management attention should be paid to the eight forests identified as priority sites in the complementarity analyses. Forest patches cannot survive in isolation, so it is important to manage the grassland, riverine vegetation, forest ecotone and forests holistically. Provisional targets were set for the conservation of flightless invertebrates, based on estimates of the requirements for persistence of invertebrates in Afrotemperate forest, made within the constraints of available information and expert opinion. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

South African grasslands are under-conserved and there is a need to expand conservation efforts beyond the boundaries of protected areas. While communal grasslands have conservation potential they are generally over-utilized and the impact of communal land-use on biodiversity is poorly studied. At the same time there is pressure on protected areas to allow for the sustainable utilization of biodiversity. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of communal land-use on various components of biodiversity and to make recommendations regarding communal use of protected areas. A fence-line study was conducted to assess the impact of eight years of controlled communal land-use on biodiversity in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park. The communally used land (referred to as the lease land) which was used for controlled grazing as well as plant collection was compared with land under formal conservation. Vegetation was sampled using the importance score method and veld condition assessments. Selected invertebrate taxa were sampled using sweep netting, colour pan traps and transects and were identified to morphospecies level. Multivariate statistics revealed that sites generally grouped according to landscape position rather than land-use. No significant differences were found in diversity, evenness, richness or veld condition between the lease and conservation land. However, more than twenty-five percent of vegetation and invertebrate species were found exclusively in the lease or conservation land, suggesting that different suites of species were supported by the two landuses. Four alien plant species were found exclusively in the lease land, while one vulnerable and one rare plant species were found only in the conservation land. Further research is required to assess whether biodiversity was diminished by controlled communal. While the lease concept may offer potential as a low-use buffer zone, localised damage from cattle paths and weak enforcement of grazing agreements were areas of concern. Keywords: communal grass)ands, grassland flora, grassland invertebrates, transfrontier park. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

Subsistence harvesting pressure in most African countries focuses on the small and mostly unreproductive trees found in the understorey stratum and can have potentially insidious ecological effects. Harvest intensities at Ongoye Forest Reserve (OFR) vary significantly across the forest (range = 87 - 567 stumps ha-1), with harvesting focussed exclusively on poles from tree species that grow only in the understorey. Growing evidence indicates that seedling establishment from the pool of species available beneath a closed canopy is greatly influenced by the differential ability of species to take advantage of the short burst of resources in newly-created understorey gaps. Seedling dynamics in these gaps may determine forest tree diversity and dynamics and consequently harvest gaps have the potential to significantly affect natural forest dynamics. This study examined seedling establishment beneath intact understorey and within artificially created understorey gaps of different sizes (single stem gaps, two stem gaps, four stem gaps, eight stem gaps and control ‘gap’, where no stems were removed) that simulated different spatial scales of harvesting intensity of understorey trees. This experiment examined the proposition that successful seedling establishment and natural succession is strongly dependent on the scale of harvesting. Seedling abundance, species richness, irradiance (photosynthetically active radiation and the red to far-red ratio), soil nutrient composition and herbaceous layer cover was measured in each gap size in 2005 before harvesting, and again in 2007. The mean seedling abundance was not significantly different among gap treatments, although there was a trend towards more seedlings in 2005 than 2007. Seedling abundance in all gaps was greater than at control sites beneath the intact understorey. There was a continuous increase in seedling richness in 2007. An average species richness of 4.3 was recorded in the control sites, beneath a shaded understorey. Here, seedling richness increased by 18.24% with the removal of a single understorey tree (Gap 1). Species richness increased with increasing experimental gap size increased so that the greatest mean species richness (6.2 species) was recorded where eight neighbouring trees were removed (Gap 8). Light transmission reaching the seedling stratum was greater in larger gaps and there was a trend towards more seedlings and greater species richness in the higher light environments of such gaps. Soil nutrient levels did not influence seedling abundance and species richness in gaps. The herbaceous layer suppressed seedling establishment. In the largest gaps (115.4m2) created by harvesting, seedling composition was more deterministic than in small gaps where seedling establishment and density was random, accordingly there were more species in larger gaps from a more defined species assemblage. Current harvesting levels of pole-sized understorey trees, where only small gaps are created in the understorey, are unlikely to alter forest dynamics and species composition at OFR. This study demonstrates that harvesting eight adjacent trees crosses the harvest intensity threshold between sustainable natural tree dynamics and a potential successional shift to an alternative state. Clearly, for natural dynamics to be maintained harvesting intensities will have to be regulated. / http://hdl.handle.net/10413/631 / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Small-scale goat farmers from south-western KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, identified gastrointestinal helminths, dry-season feed scarcity and poor reproductive performance as major production constraints and highlighted the paucity of information on goat health and management. The research and extension processes adopted to address these problems comprised on-station experimentation, followed by on-farm validation combined with the participatory dissemination of both study findings and relevant information on goat health care. The approach included the use of the FAMACHA© system to assess anaemia, a characteristic symptom of infection with the gastrointestinal nematode, Haemonchus contortus (Rudolphi, 1803). On-station experimentation indicated that urea-molasses block supplementation during the dry, winter season was a cost-effective option. Unfortunately, when tested on-farm, the value of such supplementation proved inconclusive, possibly due to low block consumption and further research into alternative and palatable protein supplements for goats is suggested. However, tactical anthelmintic treatment with ivermectin effectively reduced faecal egg counts and is recommended, as is concurrent symptomatic anthelmintic treatment, as determined by the FAMACHA© system, since this practice appeared to improve reproductive capacity. Investigations to better adapt the FAMACHA© system to goats is, however, recommended. A flexible training framework was developed with the collaboration of the farmers, providing them with advice on goat health and management. This ‘hands-on’ approach encompassed regular meetings geared to the farmers’ current expertise and exploited the on-farm experimentation as a training vehicle. The process nurtured local farmer ‘champions’, strengthened the extension skills of researchers and technicians and incorporated the development of a Goatkeepers’ animal health care manual. Indications are that the use of such an approach has considerable potential for the development of goat farming. Moreover this process, which is relatively novel for South Africa, is equally applicable to other similar agro-ecological zones. Access to veterinary and agricultural inputs in areas where communal grazing is practised could be vastly improved and a case is made for universities, researchers, extensionists and farmers to collaborate to encourage the long-term sustainable development of these communities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the improved understanding of social systems analysis in management effectiveness research on protected areas. It develops and applies propositions for incorporating the analysis of social systems into management effectiveness research. The propositions are designed as theoretical constructs which represent some aspects of social reality in protected area management. They signify an organized way of thinking about the social domain of protected area management. It is argued that an analysis of management effectiveness must recognize the need to take into account the inherent interactive nature of the connections among three variables, relationships, learning and demands. It is suggested that the three variables do not exist in isolation, but are interconnected and exert influence on each other. The interactions among the variables provide this study with a conceptual structure for analyzing the social domain of protected area management. The thesis conceives the management of relationships as a behavioral process in which protected area management agencies influence the decisions and actions of other parties, and vice versa, over a period of time in order to advance shared interests. The effectiveness of relationship management depends on integrated learning, a collective process of managing information in a timely manner so as to enhance the responsiveness of social actors involved with protected areas. Demand management is viewed as a social process in which protected area management agencies develop timely and defensible responses to current and emerging demands from stakeholders. The management of demands is expressed through relationship management and integrated learning. Important in this context is the capability of social actors to cope with complexity, change and surprises. The thesis should be seen as a theoretical premise that focuses on the learning competence of social actors by aligning and fostering their ability to respond timely to the ever-changing demands on protected areas through the effective management of relationships. It should be viewed as making a contribution to the move in protected area management towards developing learning organizations and institutions through a systems approach. This should be interpreted as enhancing learning about the human dimensions of protected area management. And more specifically, effective learning generates timely responses in the management of demands and relationships. The implications of failure to respond quickly enough are epitomized in a number of South African examples such as rivers that stop flowing and conflicts over resource use. The thesis makes a contribution to management effectiveness research by examining in some important ways why research should not be determined solely by biophysical components, but should be extended to the broader social issues that define the nature and quality of management. It is argued that a deep appreciation of management effectiveness requires an understanding of relationships, learning and demands to provide a foundation for systemic social analyses. The thesis illustrates why a behavioral approach to relationships theory provides a foundation for resilient social relationships in collaborative processes. It shows why the establishment and maintenance of an integrated learning system take place in a complex context which links elements of governance learning and management learning. It also evinces why protected area management agencies have to incorporate mental models into adaptive management of demands. These insights imply that the opportunities for effective protected area management are largely contingent on systemic insights into the underlying social structures and processes responsible for emergent problems. By exposing the insights, research on management effectiveness is poised to take new direction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

A research journey involving people, cattle, and the landscape in rural Okhombe in the western part of the province of KwaZulu-Natal and lying at the foot of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Mountain Range, South Africa, is the focus of this work. Using action research involving community members as co-researchers, it investigates why a rotational resting system for communal cattle grazing collapsed within six months of its launch. Despite having been designed in a participatory manner, the rotational resting system was not applied by cattle keepers. As a backdrop to the concern around the rotational resting system, it is necessary to understand how the current landscape of Okhombe was shaped. The history of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Region over the past two hundred years was, therefore, explored. Four historical episodes were distinguished: economic expansion, nature conservation efforts, colonial and apartheid legislation, and encounters between people all left their imprint on the landscape. Digitized maps of aerial photographs of Okhombe, taken between 1945 and 2004, showed how Government intervention changed people’s multifunctional use of the landscape to concentrated settlements and cropping fields in the valley and cattle grazing on the mountain slopes. A survey in Enhlanokhombe, one of the sub-wards of Okhombe, further investigates how cattle keepers use the rangeland commons, and what determines these practices. People are keeping fewer cattle than in the past. A 24% decrease in cattle numbers was recorded between 2001 and 2008. Cattle keepers perceive stock theft as the most important threat. Yet, figures of stock losses showed that cattle disease resulting in death is an equally pressing problem. The decline in authority of traditional leaders and the view that herding is a family task have compounded the dominant management practice of continuous grazing by cattle. Rotational resting was found to be unsuited to the majority of cattle keepers who want to keep a close watch on their herds as they graze on the lower hill slopes. People in Okhombe disagreed about the condition of the range and what comprised appropriate grazing management. A community initiative has emerged to form cattle patrols to address stock theft. If successful, it may further enhance collective action. The concern with communal grazing management investigated in this research and in the Okhombe Landcare project, of which it was part, aimed to reverse land degradation and overgrazing. An analysis of digitized maps of Okhombe taken in the period between 1945 and 2004, however, showed that soil erosion did not increase rapidly as is commonly assumed by conventional rangeland scientists and extension staff. Rather, an increase in bare soil coincided with a period of drought. The focus of the Okhombe Landcare project on combatting soil erosion and rehabilitate degraded lands was underpinned by a particular interest in and need to conserve the uKhahlamba Drakensberg as a near-pristine wilderness landscape which provides marketable ecosystem goods and services. As such, cattle keeping in Okhombe can be described as being embedded in a social-ecological system comprising a series of nested, self-organizing subsystems which are interconnected. Sub-systems include the cattle production system, cattle grazing management practices, the wider ecosystem, and government policies and regulations. A spatial-temporal and systemic approach is proposed to make meaningful, policy-related decisions regarding communal rangeland management in the future. Such an approach would enable cattle keepers, other rangeland users, and outside stakeholders, such as extension workers and policy makers, to respond effectively to changes in the landscape by taking into consideration and balancing a complex set of biophysical, socio-political, and economic variables. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

There is strong evidence from developing countries to support the hypothesis that physical accessibility of health services, particularly absolute distance from clinics, is a major determinant of health service utilization and health status. In South Africa, such evidence is very limited and as a result the relationship between absolute distance and health service utilization and health status is not fully understood. As an attempt to understand this relationship, a household survey of mothers with children aged 12-23 months was conducted in a rural district of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Maternal and child health (MCH) service utilisation and MCH status patterns were then compared at different absolute distances from PHC clinics. The find ings reveal that the study population is characterised by impoverished living conditions (86%), high functional illiteracy (67%), high fertility and unemployment rates . In comparison with other studies conducted previously in the same population, MCH service utilization rates are high. Based on mean distances of homesteads from PHC clinics in the entire study area before the Clinic Upgrading and Building Programme it has been concluded that the physical accessibility of fixed PHC clinics, when compared with the WHO recommendations, was suboptimal. When this assessment is based on clinic usage patterns, it is found that clinic usage decreased from 86.4% at 0-5 km to 79% at 6-10 km with a dramatic decrease to 37.8% at distances beyond 10 km. This decrease in usage at distances above 5 km translates into a considerable reduction in effective coverage of the target population by PHC clin ic services if it is considered that above 50% of the population live greater than 5 km from these clinics. An assessment of the effect of distance of homesteads from PHC clinics on specific MCH service utilization and MCH status has found very few or no significant differences between mothers and children living at 0-5 km, 6-10 km or > 10 km from these clinics. This observation is consistent even after adjustment for the effects of potential confounding. The fact that distance from clin ics has little or no effect on the indicators of MCH service utilization and MCH status is counter-intuitive. A few explanations can be provided. These include the fact that only 50% of the population, even in one of the most rural parts of South Africa access clinics on foot. Since the traditional assumption has been that this distance effect is a function of straight-line walking distances between homesteads and clinics, Euclidian distances alone may be a poor explanatory variable for health service utilization. Furthermore, if the hypothesis is valid that health status is a function of service utilization, it may also be a poor explanatory variable for health status of community members who are reliant on these services. Secondly, based on data from other sources, there is evidence that there have been steady declines in both mortality and fertility rates in the study population over the past 10-20 years suggesting that client communities are already benefiting quite substantially from health services in general and from MCH services in particular in spite of residual distance barriers. In other words, this distance effect on service utilization and health status may be more evident in populations with much higher background infant, child and maternal mortality rates. Thirdly, it is also possible that distance effect still exists, but that methodological limitations prevented this study from showing this effect. For instance, the fact that people use mobile clinics for some MCH services may have confounded the effect of distance from fixed clinics. It is also possible that people use different facilities for different services even though they are further away, and the assumption that all facilities have equal attraction for clients and that the only determinant of use is distance may be flawed. For example, it is evident from this and from other studies in South Africa that whereas most clients use fixed clinics for vaccinations, deliveries are now increasingly conducted at hospitals. Other methodological issues include the fact that certain health outcomes such as stunting are not an exclusive reflection of health service inputs, but are a function of social and economic determinants. Based on these findings, a number of recommendations are made. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004.

The degradation of rangeland grass is currently one of the most serious environmental problems in South Africa. Increaser and decreaser grass species have been used as indicators to evaluate rangeland condition. Therefore, classifying these species and monitoring their relative abundance is an important step for sustainable rangelands management. Traditional methods (e.g. wheel point technique) have been used in classifying increaser and decreaser species over small geographic areas. These methods are regarded as being costly and time-consuming, because grasslands usually cover large expanses that are situated in isolated and inaccessible areas. In this regard, remote sensing techniques offer a practical and economical means for quantifying rangeland degradation over large areas. Remote sensing is capable of providing rapid, relatively inexpensive, and near-real-time data that could be used for classifying and monitoring species. This study advocates the development of techniques based on remote sensing to classify four dominant increaser species associated with rangeland degradation namely: Hyparrhenia hirta, Eragrostis curvula, Sporobolus africanus and Aristida diffusa in Okhombe communal rangeland, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. To our knowledge, no attempt has yet been made to discriminate and characterize the landscape using these species as indicators of the different levels of rangeland degradation using remote sensing. The first part of the thesis reviewed the problem of rangeland degradation in South Africa, the use of remote sensing (multispectral and hyperspectral) and their challenges and opportunities in mapping rangeland degradation using different indicators. The concept of decreaser and increaser species and how it can be used to map rangeland degradation was discussed. The second part of this study focused on exploring the relationship between vegetation species (increaser and decreaser species) and different levels of rangeland degradation. Results showed that, there is significant relationship between the abundance and distribution of different vegetation species and rangeland condition. The third part of the study aimed to investigate the potential use of hyperspectral remote sensing in discriminating between four increaser species using the raw field spectroscopy data and discriminant analysis as a classifier. The results indicate that the spectroscopic approach used in this study has a strong potential to discriminate among increaser species. These positive results prompted the need to scale up the method to airborne remote sensing data characteristics for the purpose of possible mapping of rangeland species as indicators of degradation. We investigated whether canopy reflectance spectra resampled to AISA Eagle resolution and random forest as a classification algorithm could discriminate between four increaser species. Results showed that hyperspectral data assessed with the random forest algorithm has the potential to accurately discriminate species with best overall accuracy. Knowledge on reduced key wavelength regions and spectral band combinations for successful discrimination of increaser species was obtained. These wavelengths were evaluated using the new WorldView imagery containing unique and strategically positioned band settings. The study demonstrated the potential of WorldView-2 bands in classifying grass at species level with an overall accuracy of 82% which is only 5% less than an overall accuracy achieved by AISA Eagle hyperspectral data. Overall, the study has demonstrated the potential of remote sensing techniques to classify different increaser species representing levels of rangeland degradation. In this regard, we expect that the results of this study can be used to support up-to-date monitoring system for sustainable rangeland management. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This study documents the emergence of an Indian cultural enclave located on the periphery of the colonial town of Durban, its subsequent rise to a flourishing communal space by the mid twentieth century, and its decline in the apartheid era. The focus on change and transformation locates the research question within the broad ambit of historical geography. Clairwood and District grew into a densely-populated informal living space with all facilities and institutions built by the community. Based on a cultural inheritance in the form of language, the extended family system and religious beliefs , the Indian settlers and their descendants developed an elaborate network of kinship and communal relationships which formed the moral and social framework for the process of communal space construction. Entering the colony of Natal predominantly as indentured labour, the Indians were from the outset ostracized and subjugated by the white settlers and perceived as an alien temporary group. This identity was henceforth embodied in discriminatory legislation which marginalized the Indians in South Africa and resulted in their neglect and spatial containment. Parallel to the organic process of Indian communal space construction occurring in southern Durban was the sustained policy of land-use transformation embarked upon by the Durban municipality. The goal of this policy was to create a 'productive zone' south of Durban within an explicit racial zoning plan. The application of this goal resulted in a clash between the dominant white culture and the subordinate Indian culture as each.sought to retain control of the southern corridor and define its land-use and identity. After a protracted struggle the Durban municipality succeeded in imposing a formal industrial landscape upon the communal living space with the exception of the small node in Clairwood itself which has remained a residential enclave. This vestige of the former flourishing residential area of Clairwood and District suffers from industrial penetration and a physically degraded environment. However, it retains a sense of place of the former vibrant community. Clairwood is currently undergoing a process of revitalization under the auspices of the Durban municipality with a subsequent redefinition of identity. The study documents the cultural meanings that have been produced in a unique urban landscape in a South African city revealing the need to uncover the historical geographies of minority groups as a source of identity and a resource for future urban reconstruction. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 1994.