"Dirty Durban" T-Shirts Spark Row

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"Dirty Durban" T-Shirts Spark Row

Wednesday 24th of January 2007 08:51:59 PM

The tourism and city authorities are working against a clothing store in Durban, South Africa, which portrays the city as dirty. The T-Shirts read "Welcome to dirty Durban" and are sold at the city’s international airport. These T-Shirts have infuriated the city manager Michael Sutcliffe and the counsellors who help promote tourism to Durban. The T-Shirts are said to be designed to make quick money. Tony Patel, the chairperson for the group Apples is the person under question for the T-Shirts. In 2004, he was accused of making racist and derogatory posters reading, "No fatties wanted, pretty black floor supervisor, smart white sales ladies and attractive Indian cashiers." Sutcliffe said that Patel printed the T-Shirts because he had refused a Christmas gift from Patel and added "I refused to accept the gift because I don't want to be bribed. Mr Patel decided to send me the gift after I had opposed the way he conducts business. Everyone knows that he has violated the law in terms of adverts that he puts up."

The tourism promotional body, Durban Africa has told Mr Patel to stop printing the T-Shirts, but Patel said, "I printed these T-shirts because Mike Sutcliffe and Mayor Obed Mlaba are lazy. They are not doing anything to clean the city. The city is dirty." Sutcliffe said that this was not true and that Durban was voted the cleanest place in Africa in 2005. The Golden Mile is one of the main tourist attractions in Africa and is a popular place for sun lovers as well as surfers.