Stanger Street was named after William Stanger the first Surveyor General of Natal and was intimately involved in giving Durban its currrent form. Although Stanger’s achievements are no longer celebrated with a road name, the town of Stangerstill retains his name, as does the Stangeria eriopus, otherwise known as Stanger’s cycad, which Stanger misidentified as a fern and sent back to England for inspection.
Born in 1910, Stalwart Simelane was a prominent leader of the ANC in Natal in the 1950s. Prior to that, he had already helped to establish schools for Africans while he was still a teacher in the ’30s. In 1952, having been elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC, he led the first batch of Durban volunteers in the Defiance Campaign. In 1956 he was charged with treason, and was a defendant until late 1958.
Text and images formed part of the “No Longer at This Address” exhibition by Peter Machen