One day I was in one of Durban"s most luxurious resorts, giving a talk to a bunch of wealthy retired
Americans over here on holiday; the day after I found myself in one of the cruelest, most depressing
environments I"ve ever been in. The American visitors were delightful people. I think
I have a place to stay in every part of the US, next time I visit. Mostly retired and wealthy, they were
here on a vacation and I had been asked to give them a talk on how democracy had changed and improved life in
Durban, my home town.

They listened eagerly, asked lots of questions, and said how much they loved being here. I felt proud, and
after my talk, I remember thinking how, when we live with something or someone everyday, we often fail to
notice change. It"s hard to step back and see things from the perspective of an outsider looking in.
This morning, I was shocked back into another world. I knew places like RockWorld existed, but I"d never been
inside one. It"s too dangerous. Chances are you will be robbed and knifed and perhaps never see the light
of day.
The building now known as RockWorld is barely a hundred yards from the city"s prime tourist
beachfront, in a back of beach area that has steadily and slowly become an horrific urban ghetto. An Art
Deco building, it once housed a delightful Chinese Restaurant, the Tong Lok. As a youngster, we"d go
there to eat and then stroll the streets after dinner.
Not any more.

When the area got bad, the Chinese owner relocated his business to the suburbs, and unable to sell the
building because there were simply no takers, he abandoned it.
Briefly, it became a ghetto drug-ridden nightclub called RockWorld, before it sank into anarchy. Today,
it"s full of street kids, unsupervised, unassisted and living in gangs. These youngsters – in particular the
boys, prowl the streets, robbing people and begging.
The girls, some barely 11, most under 16 are strippers in seedy ghetto nightclubs, or prostitutes on street
corners.
The boys are pretty much a violent lot. They usually surround their often much older and bigger victims,
both white and black, and then will, without fear or worry stab you if needs be to get your money or
camera. Many are addicted to substances or drugs, most to sniffing glue to make them high. Sniffing glue
leads to mental and physical deterioration and these kids often don"t get past their teens, or are almost
certainly crippled.

RockWorld itself is a nightmare. There is no water and no electricity at all. The smell of filth and grime
and human waste hits you the minute you walk in. It"s dark, broken and dangerous. Some kids even sleep in
what used to be toilets and bathrooms. Rats the sizes of small cats run around and add to the health risk.
It"s simply a horrible place.
We were taken there by people who knew people and were 'connected' , so we were safe. It was odd walking
around so freely in this inner sanctum of the ghetto. Tomorrow I might well be a victim on the street. But,
strangely, especially when I showed the kids some of their pictures on the display of my camera, they were
able to manage a smile as only kids can. Somewhere, deeply buried below drugs, violence and the alienation
of city life are the heartbeats of real kids. But now, they run wild in a city, which like all big cities,
swallows its victims whole.

Peter Bendheim is a documentary urban and landscape photographer, living and working in Durban, South
Africa. To visit his website click here