The word’s largest of its kind, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, has taken the initiative and involved a nearby rural community in a conservation project. The Dube community comprises approximately 7 500 of the poorest people in KZN.

It was monumental tactlessness or spite: the triumphant signing of the settlement agreement last weekend that brought an end to the controversial Mangethe land claim was held next door to the burnt-out remains of the landowner’s community hall.

It sounds crass to call it a one-stop Aids shop, but that is exactly what it is. Amangwe village, north of Richard’s Bay, will become an integrated Aids care centre that looks after both the people afflicted with the syndrome and the social structure that is affected by their illness.

Bed and breakfast establishments in South Africa have come a long way. In the old days the guest was given a converted cupboard or the room of a teenager who had just left home, complete with dirty socks still under the bed. Then there was a long traipse down the passage to the bathroom.

The road to Ingwavuma goes through a dustbowl. The veld is parched and the trees are stunted. Piles of firewood lie on the side of the road, awaiting potential buyers on their way to Sodwana and Kosi Bay. But no one can be seen near this loot.

Conservationists warn that immediate drastic action is necessary to save the indigenous Dukuduku forest, which borders the Greater St Lucia World Heritage Site. The once-pristine stretch of rare coastal sand forest is being destroyed by thousands of illegal squatters who have been living on the land since 1975.

You can regard it as a bank with training wheels. It doesn’t even look like a bank. In some respects it isn’t. The "Village Bank" at Mfekayi in central Zululand is a community bank, helping rural farmers to handle their money. It operates along the principles of a stokvel.