The Buildings of the ‘Durban System’: The Architecture of Social Control

The Buildings of the Durban System: The Architecture of Social Controlby Len Rosenberg tells the fascinating and appalling story of the citys monopoly on the brewing of African traditional beer. The Durban System was a system of controlling the African people in the city by preventing them brewing their own traditional beer or utshwala. The city wanted to control what it perceived as drunkenness on the streets and the noise of shebeens popping up all over town.The Natal government passed a law in 1908 giving municipalities the monopoly on brewing traditional beer, and Durbans main brewery was set up next to the KwaMuhle Museum in 1913. From this stemmed a series of municipal beer halls which were the only places African people could drink beer. The main municipal brewery was next to the KwaMuhle Museum.

It was a lucrative business and the money raised from the sales was used to fund anything to do with African people, including policing them and funding the native administration.The system was so successful that the rest of South Africa soon followed suit. It was even used in the then Rhodesia.