News24 | This children’s hospital the apartheid govt tried to kill is reclaiming its heartbeat

An ornate, double-storey building with a bell-tower, sea-facing verandas and large sash windows for fresh air, Addington Children’s Hospital opened on Durban’s beachfront in 1931. The well-ventilated facility was designed for fighting respiratory illnesses such as tuberculosis (TB) in an era of “sanatorium treatment”. This was before the 1943 discovery of the antibiotic Streptomycin, which laid the foundation for modern TB medicine.

The Addington Children’s Hospital had 80 beds in five wards named after birds – Kingfisher, Heron, Jacana, Martin, and Loerie – and vivid artworks, including 52 stained-glass windows depicting fairy tales and sculptures by pioneering artist Mary Stainbank.

A former patient recounts: “I was born at the hospital in 1950 and spent time there in 1957 being treated for pneumonia... My bed was in line with the second window, and I remember so well looking out over Addington beach.” Some former nurses recall the hospital’s elaborate murals and mosaics, often somewhat “spooky” at night.

The facility is steeped in history. In the 1980s, during apartheid, the hospital, situated in a section of Durban’s beachfront then reserved for “whites-only”, treated children of all races. This defiance by healthcare staff prompted the ruling government of the time to shut it down in 1984.

Afterwards, the hospital complex, consisting of seven structures spread across 3.5 acres (about the size of a South African cricket field), stood abandoned for nearly three decades. Beside the towering provincial Addington Hospital, which adhered to apartheid policy and thus remained operational (treating mostly adult patients), the specialised children’s facility became a forlorn sight: an array of crumbling heritage buildings.

Inside, water dripped through cracks and puddled on floors as shrubs pushed through gaps in the walls. Displaced people sought shelter in the derelict wards and dark corners, living next to children’s iron beds and rusting wheelchairs, amid shattered glass, tiles and washing basins.

In 2011, Coovadia, along with Dr Arthi Ramkissoon, registered the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital Trust. Effectively, they established a public-private partnership for renovating the hospital and re-establishing its services, in collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. At the time, Ramkissoon said: “My vision is for children to have their physiotherapy and other therapy on the beach. I would like the wheelchairs and the beds to be wheeled out there, so I’m going to try to build some sort of ramp.”

On the provincial government’s side,