History and Environmental Problems
Isipingo is located along the Indian Ocean coast south of the Bluff, Wentworth and Merebank. It is a heterogeneous conglomeration of sub-communities including Isipingo Beach, Isipingo Hills, Isipingo Rail, Lotus Park, Malukazi, and Orient Park.
Isipingo Beach, with its large houses high on the dune bluff overlooking the ocean, originally was a White area, but was declared an Indian area in 1963. Isipingo Rail adjoins the Southern Freeway and is an important railway, bus, and taxi terminus between the informal settlements and Umlazi to the south and the City centre to the north. In the mid-1980s, informal settlements grew up in Malukazi on the outskirts of Isipingo.
Prospecton is an industrial area that separates the two residential areas of Isipingo. The largest employers there are Toyota Manufacturing, South African Breweries, and Republican Press; other important companies are Sapref refinery, Shell Chemicals, and Sasol Fibres.
In addition to the environmental problems caused directly by operations of these industries, Isipingo Hills and the Isipingo Secondary School were affected for many years by noxious odours and a variety of health complaints related to air pollution from the Umlazi IV hazardous waste landfill situated near its border with Umlazi (which was closed in 1996 after many years of protest from residents of Isipingo and Umlazi and, later, other communities in SDCEA).
Another major environmental concern of the Isipingo community has been the degradation of the Isipingo estuary. The rivers and estuary have been dramatically affected by diversion of rivers and canalisation to create land for industrial development, which reduced the flow of water into the Isipingo estuary to less than 6% of its original flow. Pollution of the estuary has come from industry as well as from informal settlements, sewerage works, and solid waste.
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