the La Mercy community is irritated. Not a single route marker alerts drivers to the whereabouts, or indeed the existence, of La Mercy until you’re practically in it. Ironic, really, for on the wrong side of 1994, La Mercy was largely chosen by Indian families for its promise of anonymity – a hidden, forgotten place they could call home without fear of the apartheid shadow.

Route markers are not the community’s first irritant of course and, not surprisingly, it takes way more than that to get this community bitter and twisted about their perceived marginalisation. There’s a great deal of fatalistic, ‘what’s new’ shrugging in La Mercy, for this band of long-time residents has a culture of fighting issues worth fighting. The community has a rich history, one that includes a depth of activism matched by an impressive who’s who of high-profile activists who lived, hid, or fought for their rights in the area.

Vish Naicker of Remax Dolphin Realtors has lived and worked in the area much of his life. His wife runs the adjacent post office, so they’re an integral part of this community. ‘Come and chat to the people who really know La Mercy. I’ll make a few calls.’ And he does. Next day, his office is abuzz with people at the heart of this community, men with legions of stories historical, factual and fantastical – families that go back generations. They speak with pride of their heroes, the likes of Archie Gumede, Paul David, George Sewpershad, Billy Nair, MJ Naidoo and others of the Natal Indian Congress. They describe the hide-out of the legendary Consulate Six, and the drive to the British Consul.

As key players pass through Vish’s office, it’s clear that their environment and low-density housing is something dear to their hearts, not simply as a tree-hugging exercise, but because they’ve fought long and hard for leisure amenities such as the lagoon and parking area, and won’t have them snatched away or destroyed. With a very active ratepayers association and an impressive brains trust, they’ve effectively over the years prevented sand mining in the lagoon and effected a successful rates boycott.

And when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of the area, they suggest, ‘You should speak to Geoff Pullan.’ Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Geoff Pullan arrives sporting his trademark DA socks, one blue, one yellow – but there’s little that’s yellow about Geoff. He’s been an integral part of this town since childhood. His parents owned the old, much loved Tongaat Beach Hotel, and he, as a student, ran Saturday night dances. ‘Things got really tight in the late ’90s, so I closed the hotel in mid 2001. By then, I’d built Oyster Bay flats; later, on the hotel site, Oyster Beach apartments, and more recently, Oyster Breeze. I had to ask my Aunt Kay of the Oyster Box Hotel whether I could use the name.’ Geoff’s town planning qualifications equipped him for a job with the former Council, and he told the local authority he wanted to help. ‘They put my name forward as a councillor. Tongaat was the only multiracial council – run and chaired by the Tongaat Hulett Group – and it was only in ’86 that a “coup” evicted them and I was voted in as chair.’ Inevitably, Geoff’s enjoyed a colourful journey with the Council, but whatever his choice of colours, he lives here because he’s always loved it. Simple.

The name La Mercy sounds vaguely spiritual, but it’s not. It’s an embellishment of the French word for sea, la mer, conjured up by the Mauritian sugar-baron owners of the land, the De Chazals. Originally, this stretch was all Tongaat Beach, but Geoff says in the ’80s they discussed a way to make it less confusing. ‘We call it Westbrook on the one side of the M4, Westbrook Beach on the other. Then Casuarina Beach, Sea Tides, Desainagar, La Mercy Beach and La Mercy.’

The intriguing thing about Desainagar and Sea Tides is that they were originally private developments. Desainagar originates from the Desai family, with ngar meaning township. This was a family of tailors, hence street names such as Threadneedle Street. Sea Tides was originally Boys Town land, developed by Tom Naidoo for middle-class families. In the property market for 33 years, Tom still loves the idea that he found the first loophole in the land’s classification, one that enabled him to circumvent the Group Areas Act and sell multi-racially.
There’s a fair debate about the first residents at La Mercy, but Mr R. Nadasen considers himself to have become the area’s first permanent resident in late 1967, although the legendary Seabelle restaurant family claim four generations of life here.

Dan Govender’s family moved to La Mercy around ’75 as a result of the Group Areas Act. Dan says: ‘We were turfed out of our Greyville house, and later, the one in Avoca. We moved here because nobody would worry us. This was all bush; no road, inaccessible – we thought, “they won’t take this away from us”. We were a small farming community.’

La Mercy is still a predominantly Indian farming community, with skills, land and intriguing stories that reach back generations. Aside from the general property slowdown, La Mercy has an added retardant – the current infrastructure can’t cope with new development. It’s a double-edged sword, for residents enjoy the preservation of their peace and views, while simultaneously questioning the lack of much needed input from those holding the purse strings.

‘The advantage,’ says Vish, ‘is that it’s unlikely to end up as a concrete high-rise jungle like the neighbouring towns.’ He estimates that today, Desainagar comprises around 120 homes, Sea Tides about 500 and La Mercy the same.

Westbrook – particularly Westbrook Beach – offers an intriguing scenario, for it’s here at this glorious swimming beach that luxury homes remained out of the public eye. A beach site or sea-view home has always been valued above all others, commanding a higher price, but the apartheid hangover kept interlopers at bay. But that was then. Now, as development at Umdloti to the south and Ballito to the north intensifies, this little, forgotten enclave is rapidly drawing attention.

The days of nipping down to your north coast beach cottage to escape the rat race are on the wane – those seaside suburbs are where the rat race is hottest. But there’s still room to breathe along this little stretch. Sharp investors saw purchases here as a smart move, and developers are demolishing and building at a rapid rate. Construction has become a way of life, cranes and piles of bricks a permanent part of the landscape. Today, the prestigious North Beach Road in Westbrook is set to be a heady mix of glam houses and luxury apartments.

Peace, seclusion and the promise of a great investment drove the market, while the go-ahead for the new airport and trade port fed the demand and confirmed early investor’s beliefs. Despite controversy and concerns about the new airport at La Mercy, the limitations of Durban International Airport had long foretold the ultimate necessity of relocating it. Situated on requisite flat land and with a comparatively minor negative impact on surrounding residential populations, expropriation of the 2 000 hectare site near La Mercy and excavation of the initial runway and terminal platform was started by government in the 1970s. Construction didn’t get further until August 2007. Now a new project will provide Durban with an airport and facilities capable of meeting calculated demands well beyond 2060.

Tysons’ Gail Cox believes the ‘tranquil, uncluttered retreat’ of La Mercy has enormous potential for investors. ‘Just watch. With the petrol price, everybody wants to live close to where they work. La Mercy’s proximity to the business centres of Umhlanga (12 kilometres) and La Lucia Ridge will continue to fuel demand for residential properties. Tourists, too, landing at the new airport, will want accommodation close to amenities, such as Sibaya Casino and Gateway Theatre of Shopping. Not to mention the beaches.’

When it comes to the levelling off of the country’s property market, La Mercy to Westbrook is no exception. But Jules van der Velde of Remax believes it’s not purely the national issues: ‘These are not well known areas. Having said that, properties around the airport are hot property for big investors.’ Although the area has little in the way of amenities, she heaps praise on the multicultural private school of Crawford North, with its pre-primary, primary and high school facilities.

Jules looked at residential prices over the past four years: ‘A three-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex bought on Westbrook Beach in August 2003 for R650 000 could now sell for R2,5-million. Two hectares of land on La Mercy’s South Beach Road bought for R1,7-million in 2004, would now realise R6,5-million.’ She says the residential prices vary tremendously: ‘You can get land in La Mercy village for R400 000, and a house on the beach in Westbrook for R8,5-million. We have houses in Westbrook village ranging from R1,2-million to R3-million. Units on the beach in La Mercy, as well as Westbrook, range from R850 000 to R3 million. You could probably pick up a very old unit in La Mercy for R400 000.’

Gary Paget of Pam Golding Properties considers land to have been the best investment, providing, he says, it was bought over two years ago.

The older homes in this area are large. As Gail Cox says: ‘These homes were built in an era where the emphasis was on family.’
The Indian community here is not immune to the flight of their youngsters, and although they’re sad to be sitting in massive homes designed for the extended family, they’ve no choice but to watch their children move ‘up’ to Umhlanga, Johannesburg and overseas. Would they leave La Mercy? Daniel Panday is not the only one to shake his head vehemently. He laughs: ‘I tried. Sold up and went to Cape Town. Good job, nice home. I lasted six months, told my wife, “we’re going back”. Fortunately my house sale hadn’t been concluded.’

The property professionals concur that the real growth in the area will be evident as the airport progresses and Dube Tradeport comes on stream. Gary Paget believes ‘the main growth has been in the last two years, and the majority of development is beach-front apartments. There’s very little commercial development, although this will change with the advent of the new airport. This is an area which is only now beginning to realise its potential – at long last, the value of the beach-front is being unlocked.’ He adds: ‘I’d like to see the beaches made more user-friendly as has been done with the lagoon, where kite surfers are regularly seen and there’s safe parking for weekend visitors.’
Keith Wakefield of Wakefields Estate Agents believes La Mercy is on the brink of great growth and activity if the Dube Tradeport predictions of creating 11 000 sustainable jobs over five to eight years come to fruition. ‘Thousands of families needing accommodation closer to work will naturally create demand for property and prices will rise both for land and houses. We expect there’ll be a demand for housing in La Mercy and surrounding areas, as happened with Gateway when the office park was developed, and there have been predictions of prices rising between 15 and 30 per cent.’

La Mercy isn’t merely home for this community. It was a refuge, an income, an area that made – and was part of – history. Now the inland family farms, smallholdings and little market gardens hugging the slopes will increasingly make way for the inevitable industry and commerce that clings to an airport. The harmony that always existed between the community and the informal settlement is fracturing, say the long-term residents – ‘informal properties’, which should be demolished, aren’t. They then change hands illegally, and the new, young incumbents lack the ethics of the old.

Driving along the M4, much of this stretch of coastline on either side appears unchanged. Just as it was when we were kids en route elsewhere: lush veggies on the slopes, derelict ‘ghost’ houses on vast seaside plots, the promise of a famous prawn curry at the Seabelle Restaurant, kite boarders and windsurfers on the lagoon. But glide off at the brand-new roundabouts and you’ll find a hive of property action, from holiday accommodation to renovations, new builds to all-fall-downs. It’s a work in progress, and everybody’s watching that space.