KwaZulu Natal DestinationsChatsworth, Durban
One of Durban's biggest inner-city suburbs just south of the city centre, Chatsworth is a growing, vibrant and cosmopolitan home to over 450 000 people that extends over some 64 different suburbs in a mish mash of old and new architecture and a buzzing economy so diverse it ranges from spaza shops through big brand stores.
Chazzies, as Chatsworth is known, is a former township - an overhang from the apartheid era and the Group Areas Act that created Chatsworth in the late 1960s specifically for the Indian population - 'Europeans' were agitating at the time about Indian 'penetration'. About 7 000 Indians were removed from the Magazine Barracks in central Durban, joined by thousands of uprooted Indians from other areas such as Sea Cow Lake, Riverside, Umhlanga, Berea, Bellair and Cato Manor - all of which went on to become 'white' suburbs.
Chatsworth, as a result of its history, is still predominantly Indian today, although there is a healthy mix of African, Indian, white and coloured residents. It boasts a rich flavour of mixed Indian cultures that has given rise to the Temple of Understanding, undoubtedly South Africa's most spectacular Hare Krishna temple, also called Sri Sri Radhanath Temple.
Chatsworth's business community crosses the divide from tiny corner spazas to large corporate companies, alongside a large manufacturing industry and one of the busiest shopping malls in the country - over 1.2 million people a month shop here in the heart of Chatsworth.
