AFSUN Policy Brief: Msunduzi

The Community Survey of 2007 by Statistics South Africa
portrays Msunduzi and its surrounding hinterland as
modestly populated with the lowest average annual growth
rate between 2001-2007 of the top eight cities in South
Africa. With a population of fewer than one million and a
growth rate of less than one percent - compared with over
three percent for Ethekweni, Ekurhuleni, Cape Town and
Johannesburg - the immediate consideration is that it is of
less importance than the other cities with apparently more
dire development imperatives. However, the findings of the
Urban Food Security Baseline Survey (August 2008) which
sampled 556 households and 2871 individuals in vulnerable
communities within Msunduzi, shows that the city’s poor
face some of the most pressing poverty and food security
challenges in SADC.