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CITY OF JOHANNESBURG
HERITAGE ASSESSMENT FORDSBURG
NEWTOWN WEST MAYFAIR
PART 2 AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW & HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
ELSABE BRINK HISTORY AND HERITAGE RESEARCH 70 Hampton Avenue
Auckland Park Johannesburg 2092 Tel: 083 348 8080 Email:
[email protected]
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HISTORICAL OVERVIEW FORDSBURG AND MAYFAIR
The very poor of Johannesburg were concentrated on the inner
west of the city, around the area known as Brickfields. Although
the Boer authorities had made a formalistic stab at imposing racial
segregation here, designating a Coolie Location for Indians and a
Kaffir locations for Africans around Brickfields, which was itself
seen as an areas for poor whites, these racial boundaries were
scarcely policed and very porous. In Brickfields especially, there
was considerable racial mixing. For all the racism of early
Johannesburg, it is important not to read the highly formalized
segregation of mid-twentieth century South Africa back in time.
Johannesburg was born without clear racial boundaries. It took
racist politicians decades of effort to segregate it and even then
their success was never complete. The effective beginning of
segregation lay not in the Boer republic, but in the activities of
the post-war British administration. In 1903 a commission
recommended that the slums of west-central Johannesburg be
demolished. Brickfields was subsequently levelled.1
Source: Beavon K, Johannesburg: The Making and Shaping of the
City, University of South Africa Press, Pretoria, 2004.
1Hyslop J, The Notorious Syndicalist: JT Bain: A Scottish Rebel
in Colonial South Africa, Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg,
2004, pp.159-160
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ESTABLISHMENT OF FORDSBURG AND MAYFAIR Fordsburg - 1888
Fordsburg and Mayfair was established on land, which from the
mid-1800s formed part of the farm Langlaagte. The original farm was
registered in March 1859 in the name of Matthijs Johannes Smit and
subsequently divided into smaller portions and owned by numerous
members of the Oosthuizen family who, in a complex series of
subdivisions, owned various portions of the farm. The portion on
which George Harrison discovered the Main Reef was owned by JJP
Oosthuizen and after his death in September 1883 by his widow
Petronella Francina Oosthuizen. 2 Fordsburg was one of the earliest
townships to be laid out by private developers in Johannesburg.
They were Lewis P Ford and Julius Jeppe Senior and his sons Carl
Jeppe and Julius Jeppe Junior (later Sir Julius Jeppe) who formed
the Ford and Jeppe Estate Co. They acquired land immediately to the
east and west of the new mining camp laid out on the portion of
uitvalsgrond, Randjeslaagte. Ford and Jeppe then laid out two
townships and named it after themselves. Fordsburg was laid out in
1888 and Jeppestown in 1889, an act of faith on their part since at
that stage there was not certainty that these goldfields would
actually be sustainable. Lewis Peter Ford (1846-1925) was the
Attorney-General of the Transvaal during the adminsitaration of Sir
Theophilus Shepstone after the annexation of the Zuid-Afrikaansche
Republiek (ZAR) from 1877-1881. Ford was born in London, came to
the Cape and studied at the SA College in Cape Town. He worked at
Richmond and Murraysburg in the Cape Colony before going to
Kimberley during the diamond rush.
As a partner in the Randjeslaagte Syndicate he was involved in
mining transactions in the early days of the Witwatersrand and
became involved in property development in the Ford and Jeppe
Estate Co., later known as the Witwatersrand Townships and Estates
Co. W H Auret Prichard, who also surveyed much of early
Johannesburg, surveyed the suburb. 3 Sir Julius Jeppe (jnr) was one
of Fords assistants in Pretoria during this period. He settled in
Johannesburg in 1886 where he built the mansion Friendenheim in
Belgravia. His father Julius Jeppe snr. built the first brick house
in Johanneburg in 1886.4 There is evidence of a plantation and
nursery in the early days of Fordsburg. The nursery was much in
demand to supply the plantations of especially bluegum trees being
established on the Witwatersrand with seedlings. One such
plantation was established in what is today Saxonwold on the north
side of the Parktown Ridge. In a natural environment consisting of
mainly savannah and few trees, these mature blue
2 Stals ELP, Die Afrikaners in die Goudstad, Vol.I&II, HAUM,
Pretoria 1978 & 1986, Vol I, p.5 Leyds GA, A History of
Johannesburg, Nasionale Boekhandel, Cape Town, 1964, p. 5 3 Leyds,
GA, p.152-53. 4 Meiring H, Early Johannesburg; Its Buildings and
its People, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 1985, p.94.
Unfortunately this book, which contains detailed information on
suburbs and individual structures, is not footnoted. However, the
text written was by G-M Van Der Waal, an architectural historian
who had done extensive research on the architectural history of
Johannesburg and can be considered to be reliable. His book, From
Mining Camp to Metropolis, Chris van Rensburg Publications,
Johannesburg, 1987, remains a standard work on the architectural
history of the city.
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gums trees on Main Reef Road are a reminder of the vital
importance of these trees for the mining industry. Stands on Main
Street, Fordsburg up to Terrace Road were put out for sale at an
auction in May 1893. It alleged that these stands were in the heart
of the Forest and offer for private residence, complete rest and
quietude. These stands face Lovers and Nursery Walks, Pine Terrace,
Park Lane, Commercial and Foundain roads. The advertisement alleges
that these streets had already been planted with street trees.5 As
township developers, Ford and Jeppe appreciated this drawing card
and were among the first to level Commissioner Street, the early
east-west arterial in 1888 to connect Jeppestown and Fordsburg with
the mining camp. They also built the first bridges over the Natal,
Booysens and Fordsburg Spruits.6 Fordsburg also lends its name to
the Fordsburg Spruit which has its source in the Kazerne
Brickfields on the southern slopes of the Braamfontein watershed
and flows in the direction of the Robinson Mine. During the early
days of settlement the spruit had rich clay beds, which provided
business opportunities for the brickmakers to establish the first
brickfields, which provided the burgeoning mining camp with green
and fired bricks. As the spruit flows south to meet up with
tributaries of the Klip Spruit, it flows through the Fordsburg Dip,
which during the 1890s was considered to be a dangerous swamp. The
Fordsburg Spruit was used as the western drainage level in the
first sewerage scheme considered for Johannesburg in 1895. After
the British occupation of the city in 1900s it featured strongly in
as the western outfall of the gravitational sewerage works
established on the farm Klipspruit, where Soweto is today. 7
Brickfields/Burghersdorp - 18878 Before 1900s the area which today
is known as Newtown was known alternatively as The Brickfields or
Burghersdorp. Many poor people of all races, who with the discovery
of gold lived in the rural ZAR, trekked to the Witwatersrand to
find their fortunes. However, having no skills in mining, most
became brickmakers, transport riders cab drivers or labourers,
rural skills, which could be used in the developing urban
environment. In a very short time it became Johannesburgs first
slum. The Kazerne railway marshalling yards - 1892 The railway
line, which gave access to the Kazerne railway yard as well as Park
Station and Braamfontein, then called Johannesburg station was laid
in 1892.9 As the ZAR possessed no manufacturing industry, all
machinery, equipment and building 5 Smith A, Johannesburg Street
Names, Juta, Johannesburg, 1972, Fordsburg. 6 Van der Waal GM, From
Mining Camp to Metropolis: The Buildings of Johannesburg 1886-1940,
Chris van Rensburg Publications, Johannesburg, 1987, p.38-39 7
Smith A, p.161. 8 Cf Van Onselen C, Main Reef Road into the Working
Class: proletarianisation, unemployment and class consciousness
amongst Johannesburgs Afrikaner poor, 1890-1914, in Studies in the
Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand: 1886-1914, New
Babylon, New Nineveh, Vols I & II, Ravan Press, Johannesburg,
Shorten J, The Johannesburg Saga, John R Shorten, (Pty) Ltd. Under
the authority of the Johannesburg City Council, Johannesburg, 1970,
p.171 9 Leyds GA, p.162
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materials used on the mines and in the mining camp had to be
imported from Europe or America and transported inland from the
coast. As the mining activities picked up speed, the completion of
rail links between Johannesburg and the coast, especially Durban
and Cape Town, became crucial. ZAR President Paul Kruger favoured
the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappiu (NZASM)
which undertook to link Johannesburg with Portuguese controlled
Delagoa Bay. As imports increased in volume, larger marshalling
yards were required. The most ideal land lay between the
Braamfontein and Park Stations and after the expropriation and
removal of the brickmakers, the new Kazerne marshalling yards were
built. These contained huge NZASM goods sheds, compounds to house
African workers, and married quarters and sportsfields for white
workers. A customs building was erected on the eastern perimeter of
the yards.10 Indian Location - 1887 The Indian Location was
established in 1887 as the only area where people of Indian origin
could legally buy and own property in Johannesburg. Indian Location
comprised the area between Malherbe, Malan, Location/Carr and
Christian Streets. As this area comprised only six city blocks, it
very soon became highly congested as more and more Indian traders
arrived in the mining camp. The then city authorities did very
little in terms of providing much needed services in the area. By
1897 there were 96 stands in the area with an assessed value of
almost 36 000 pounds and population of 4 000. The population
dropped during the Anglo Boer South African War (1899-1902) with
only 600 Indians remaining in 1902. By 1904 some 1 600 Indians had
returned to the city. Most of the hawkers, pedlars who lived in
Burghersdorp, Fordsburg and Vrededorp were Gujarati Hindus, whilst
Muslim Jujarati and Memon traders operated stores. The 1904 census
shows that in this population as with other immigrant groups, men
vastly outnumbered women, by 8:1.11 Soon after the turn of the
century Albert West, an associate of Mahatma Gandhi, then a lawyer
in Johannesburg described conditions in the Location;
The Indian Location in Johannesburg was in a deplorable
condition, being without proper roads, lighting or sanitation, the
dilapidated buildings being mostly of wood or iron. The residents
acquired their plots by a lease of ninety-nine years. People were
densely packed together, the area of which never increased with the
increase of population. 12
After 1894 people of Malay origin mostly coloured people from
the Cape Colony - were provided with land which they could legally
buy and occupy in the so-called Malay Location further to the west,
established in 1894. 13 Like the Indian Location this area proved
to be grossly inadequate for the number of people who migrated to
10 Taken from Brink E, Newtown - Old Town, MuseumAfrica, Occasional
Publication, Johannesburg,1994. 11 Bhana S &Brain J, Setting
Down Roots: Indian Migrants in South Africa, 1860-1911,
Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1990, pp.78-77
p.86-87 12 Itzkin E, Gandhis Johannesburg: Birthplace of
Satyagraha, Witwatersrand University Press, 2000, p.50 13 Taken
from E Brink, Old Town Newtown, 1st Occasional Publication of
MuseumAfrica, 1994. Information form C van Onselen and ELP Stals,
Vol I.
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Johannesburg and were by law required to reside in this area. In
time this area became known as Pageview or Fietas. Newtown after
1904 The area which was redeveloped after the destruction of the
Indian Location was renamed Newtown. Geographically Newtown
straddles the M1 motorway constructed above Goch Street (now Henry
Nxumalo Street) which since the 1960s, has artificially divided the
area. The western portion of Newtown only forms part of this
review. For almost a century the bulk of the land in the area east
of the motorway belonged to the Johannesburg City Council, but
pockets, especially on the western side of Newtown were sold to
private businessmen. After 1913 with the completion of the Fresh
Produce Market, Newtown West, which was previously occupied by the
Indian Location rapidly redeveloped. With the establishment of
Premier Milling on the site of the former location, numerous
supporting trading firms, especially in grains and feeds set up
shop in the area between Carr and Bree Streets, which was well
served both by road and railway sidings. According to Nigel Mandy,
writer of Mandy N, A City Divided: Johannesburg and Soweto,
Newtown became a lively and cosmopolitan place in the best
tradition of city markets everywhereIndian wholesalers, retailers
and hawkers played an important part in the distribution of produce
while Portuguese market gardeners were also much in evidence.
Nearby were the factories and showrooms of firms specialising in
pumps and irrigation equipment, seeds, harness and saddlery,
canvas, veterinary medicines and stock feeds, builders hardware,
gates and fencing. The whole animated and sharp-witted community
came to be known as the University of Newtown. The areas ageing and
low-rent buildings made an excellent nursery for infant
industries.14
The most important enterprise to occupy western Newtown was
Premier Milling. Joffe Marks commissioned the first mill in Newtown
in 1910. Premier Milling which incorporated the Newtown, Fordsburg
and Germiston Mills was formed in 1914 and was listed as a public
company in 1929. In 1934 Premier milling purchased the Vereeniging
Milling Company, first registered by the entrepreneur Sammy Marks
in 1916. During the 1930s and 1940s Premier Milling expands its
operations nationally with the acquisition of mills in the Free
State, Cape Town and the then Rhodesia. The chairmanship of the
company remains in family hands until the late 1980s.15 In
addition, Newtown was the home to numerous Indian-owned businesses
some smaller but, others such as the much larger Mia Group, can
still be found in the area. The first members of the Mia family
arrived in ZAR in the mid-1880s and after a sojurn in Rustenburg
migrated to Johannesburg in the mid-1890s. Essop Mia and Moosa
Ismail Mia started trading hawkers. In 1924 Moosa Ismail Mia opened
a wholesale business in the centre of town. By 1977 the Mia Group
took control of the
14 Macmillan, Johannesburg, 1984, p.55 15 Jaffee G, Joffe Marks;
A Family Memoir, United Trust (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg,
2001,pp.182-184
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Witwatersrand Gold Mining Company, one of the earliest gold
mining companies on the Witwatersrand. In 1994 the company was
honoured by the Johannesburg City Council with a Centennial
Business Award, handed to companies who had been trading in the
city for more than 100 years. 16 The Mia family still owns premises
on the corner of Bree and Malherbe Streets in Newtown. However,
during the Apartheid ere, discriminatory action under the Group
Areas Act (1950) destroyed many of these valuable enterprises or
forced them to operate less economically behind white front men and
from less suitable premises.17 Mayfair After the ground on which
Mayfair is located was de-proclaimed in 1892, the first public
auction for stands in Mayfair was announced in August 1896. Like
that of Fordsburg, the auction was held at the area known as
Between the Chains outside the Stock Exchange in Simmons Street. JB
Robinson, owner of the Robinson gold mine south of Fordsburg was
the chairman of the company, which owned the suburb. It is claimed
that Robinson named the suburb after the London suburb of Mayfair
perhaps in the hope that it would become as fashionable as its
British counterpart, which is also located to the west of the city
centre.18
16 Johannesburg City Council, Centennial Business Awards,
Commemorative Book, 1994. 17 Mandy N, A City Divided: Johannesburg
and Soweto, Macmillan, Johannesburg, 1984 p.56 18 Smith A,
p.326
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FORDSBURG AND MAYFAIR WORKING CLASS COMMUNITIES Within a decade
of the discovery of the main reef, Johannesburg became southern
Africas largest town. The western side of the city attracted mostly
the poor. By 1893 poor white people moved into Vrededorp, and
Indians, Coloureds and Black people lived mainly in the Indian
Location or on the low-lying swampy grounds along the Fordsburg
Spruit. The surburbs on the eastern side of the city centre, such
as Troyeville, Jeppestown and Doornfontein attracted the more
affluent section of the mining community.19 Stands in the township
of Fordsburg were offered for sale from 1887 and since there were
no restrictions regarding its residential or business use, stands
sold well. Its proximity to the mines and to the centre of the
mining town made it a popular choice for the poor irrespective of
race or creed. Mine workers chose to settle here - since the suburb
was in easy walking access to a number of gold mines, e.g.
Robinson, Crown Mines and the Village Deep mines. Indian traders,
Chinese merchants and men working in the Johannesburg transport
business also set up stables for horse-drawn cabs here. As a
consequence the older suburbs such as Fordsburg consisted of a mix
of residential accommodation, small shops, workshops, and bars or
eating houses. Accommodation During the early days of Johannesburg,
accommodation was at a premium and temporary housing in the form of
hotels and rooming houses proliferated. Rooming houses consisted of
one or two rows of separate rooms, rented to workers. Very often
these were situated behind small shops or rows of shops. After the
Anglo Boer South African War as single miners brought their
families to settle in Johannesburg detached and semi-detached
mineworker cottages as well as British-styled row houses, which
became highly sought after amongst white mineworker families in
need of accommodation close to the mines. In these suburbs black
workers, either as independent tenants or in the employ of the
white occupants, occupied the rooms in the outbuildings on the
premises of white occupied residences.20 Shopping nodes After the
1890s, as Fordsburg attracted larger numbers of more permanent
residents it also became a focus for commercial development in
suburban shopping nodes to serve the growing suburban population,
both black and white. The principal node developed along Main Road,
Fordsburg, which was also the route of the horse drawn tram ending
in Commercial Road. This amenity remained a major draw card for
settlement in Fordsburg during most of the twentieth century,
especially for members of the working class who were dependent on
public rather than private transport.21 Nature of the structures
During the pre-war years (1899-1902) many houses built in Fordsburg
and Burghersdorp were wood and iron structures with a single lining
of green, sun-dried bricks obtained from the Brickfields. Interior
walls were also constructed of green
19 Mandy N, p.13 20 Van der Waal GM, From Mining Camp to
Metropolis: The Buildings of Johannesburg 1886-1940, Chris van
Rensburg Publications, Johannesburg, 1987 p.38-39 21 Van der Waal,
p.79
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bricks. Due to the initial shortage of wood on the
Witwatersrand, ceilings were canvas or cotton sheeting which were
nailed to the rafters.22 Only after the turn of the century did
redevelopment take place when British influenced Edwardian
semi-detached row houses and freestanding houses were built from
predominantly fired bricks. Many of these are still in existence,
albeit much changed, especially as a result of security measures
taken by owners or tenants. Van der Waal presents the following
picture of the residential stock;
There was a marked difference between the older working class
suburbs and those for residents in the higher income groups. In the
first category the stands were smaller, for instance in Fordsburg
Vrededorp, Jeppestown, Braamfontein and Betrams and the houses were
grouped in semi-detached pairs on each stand set back about 2m from
the street line. While the road surface was meant for vehicular
traffic, the verges would be developed into sidewalks which carried
the slow-moving pedestrian traffic emanating from the relatively
densely populated suburbs. Because the stands were demarcated by
low garden walls and verandahs virtually fronted on to the streets,
these sidewalks were probably regarded as extension of the
semi-private front gardens.23
Public open space The area of Mayfair and Fordsburg does not
have much public open space. Along the lines of the original
Johannesburg Market Square, Fordsburg has its own Market Square,
albeit smaller. It featured prominently during the 1922 Rand Revolt
when its Market Building was occupied by strikers and subsequently
partially demolished during bombing attacks launched on the
strikers by government forces. After the Revolt the building was
completely demolished. Fordsburg Park was laid out south of Main
Road, but was later renamed John Ware Park.24 It is currently used
by the South African Police Services and consists of a disused
swimming pool, a number of disused bowling greens. The tennis
courts and club house are still in use. A group of very old palm
trees indicate the age of the park. Mayfair has a greater number of
parks than Fordsburg. Most prominent is the Phineas McIntosh Park
at the northern end of Church Street, Mayfair. Before the forced
removal of Pageview in the late 1960s, Pageview residents
intensively used this park for sporting activities. Transport The
Jeppestown, Doornfontein and Fordsburg commercial centres developed
close to the stations, as well as along the tram routes. Both
Fordsburg and Mayfair are also served by the railway line, which at
first ran above ground, but during the 1930s was submerged below
ground level and the subway under the railway line, linking
Fordsburg and Vrededorp was constructed in 1911.25
22 Leyds GA,152-153 23 Van der Waal GM, p.84 24 Smith A, p.161
25 Van der Waal GM, p. p.82
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THE FORDSBURG COMMUNITY For most of the twentieth century
Fordsburg was a multi-cultural melting pot of mainly impoverished
workers who found some means of making a living in service
industries related to mining. Since the Malay Location, later known
as Pageview, was immediately adjacent to both Fordsburg and
Burgersdorp, Indians and Afrikaans speakers lived and worked here
in close proximity. In her novel, Another Year in Africa, the
novelist Rose Zwi, paints a very vivid picture of the cultural
melting pot which was Fordsburg and Mayfair during the early years
of the 20th century;
Main Street [Fordsburg] was shining after the rain. A tram car
clambered heavily up the hill, packed with people returning from
work. Their faces looked soft and warm in the golden light. Berka
loved them all. Even that thief Steinberg who gave short weight in
his butchery; and Chidrawi, the swathy Syrian who was arranging a
pyramid of yellow peaches in his window; and Levin the outfitter
who stood in his doorway, a tape measure around his neck. And all
those children outside the fish and chips shop watching wistfully
as Ronnie Davis sprinkled vinegar over someone elses chips. He even
felt a fleeing affection for the miser Pinn who owned a second-hand
shop. The adults were having their Sunday nap and the street [in
Mayfair] was deserted except for Ruth and a few black servants who
were sitting on the pavement in their Sunday clothes. From across
the veld, beyond the plantation, came the sound of singing and
drumming. The mine workers were having their Sunday dance. Ruth had
seen them once, dressed in beads and feathers with rattles tied to
their ankles. They stamped their feet wildly as they raised their
assegais above their heads in a mock battle dance.26
Despite the fact the Fordsburg was officially a suburb
designated for white occupation; it also housed a sizeable Indian
community. The latter, of necessity, occupied the area as an
overflow from Pageview, especially Fordsburg north of Avenue Road.
If considered that total area of Pageview, as the only suburb which
Indians could legally occupy, remained virtually unchanged for most
of the twentieth century, it is not surprising that it was grossly
overcrowded for most of its existence during this period and that
finding shelter in the northern portion of Fordsburg remained the
only alternative for many Indians. By the outbreak of World War II
in 1939 there were 14 000 Indians living in Johannesburg, almost
half 7 000 lived in Pageview, consisting of 469 stands occupied by
single storeyed houses.27 The following table gives some indication
as to the growth of the Indian community in Johannesburg in the
second half of the twentieth century. A large segment of the
community lived in Pageview and Fordsburg.
26 Zwi R, Another Year in Africa, Bateleur Press, Johannesburg,
1980, pp. 16 & 75. 27 Beavon K, Johannesburg: The Making and
Shaping of the City, University of South Africa Press, Pretoria,
2004, p.191
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Indian population of Johannesburg 1950-198028 1951 1960 1970
1980 Number 22295 28993 40021 54940 % 6,1 6,1 6,3 6,7 In contrast
the following table portrays the size of the Afrikaans- and English
speaking community of Fordsburg and Mayfair portrays the way in
which this community gradually succumbed to the pressure of the
Indian community in dire need of accommodation. The statistics
provided by ELP Stals in Afrikaners in die Goudstad, Vol II,
provides some idea of the migration of the white community from
Fordsburg to Mayfair and elsewhere between 1934 and 1961. Number of
municipal voters divided according to language group per suburb29
Fordsburg Mayfair 1934 Afrikaans speaking 1023 1250 English
speaking 924 3912 1949 Afrikaans speaking 501 5949 English speaking
390 4605 1961 Afrikaans speaking 204 5510 English speaking 218 3945
THE INDIAN COMMUNITY From 1860 onwards, at the height of the
British Empire, British authorities in the Colony of Natal began
importing indentured Indian labourers to work on the newly
established sugar plantations. These labourers were mainly from
Madras India and mostly Hindu. They were followed by many Gudjerati
traders of the Muslim faith who emigrated to southern Africa of
their own accord from the 1870s onwards. In competition with white
storekeepers, these Indian traders established themselves not only
in Natal, but also in virtually all the small towns in the Zuid
Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Scores of Indians also made a living
as hawkers. From 1885 onwards, the ZAR restricted the rights of
Indians to own and occupy property except in areas set aside for
them in these towns. The local authorities could refuse to grant
them trading licences without any risk of court action. Prior to
the outbreak of the Anglo Boer South African War, there were
approximately 15 000 Indians lived in the ZAR. Johannesburg had the
largest Indian population, who made a living from trading, hawking,
peddling or as cooks, waiters, or laundrymen. Indian shopkeepers
catered mostly for black and coloured clients, especially in areas
such as Diagonal and West Street in downtown Johannesburg.
28 Arkin AJ, The Indian South Africans: A Contemporary Profile,
Owen Burgess Publishers, Pinetown, 1989. p.57 Comparatively Cape
Town averaged around 2% of the population, Pretoria between 1,6 and
1,8% and Durban increased from 45% in 151 to 60,8% in 1980. 29
Stals ELP, Vol II, p.190-191
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About 1 000 licensed hawkers and peddlers also operated in
Johannesburg and mostly lived in Burghersdorp, Fordsburg and
Vrededorp. Law 3 of 1885 governed the life and movements of Indians
in the ZAR. During the reconstruction period after Anglo Boer South
African War, the new British government maintained these
discriminatory laws. In 1906 a new ordinance, the Asiatic Law
Amendment Ordinance and the Asiatic Registration Act inflicted even
more stringent restrictions on Indians. It prohibited further
Indian immigration into the Transvaal, provided for the deportation
of illegal residents and required every Indian legally in the
Transvaal to carry a registration certificate at all times. The
circumstances under which Indians were obliged to live provided the
background against which Mahatma Gandhi, then a young lawyer,
developed his ideas of passive resistance to racial discrimination
and unjust laws, Satyragraha (soul force), involving non-violent
non-compliance with offending laws.30 (See the section on
significant events in the history of Fordsburg and Mayfair for a
brief discussion of the impact of passive resistance movement on
this area.) Social amenities of the Indian community Since a
systematic history of the Indian community of Fordsburg is yet to
conducted, information for this report was collated from numerous
sources. The book by Nazir Carrim, Fietas: A Social History of
Pageview: 1948-1988, Save Pageview Association, Johannesburg, 1990,
which focuses primarily on Pageview, provides an oblique view into
the history of the Fordsburg Indian community. Education In 1913 at
the request of a group of Muslim traders, the first school
exclusively for Indian people, was opened in Fordsburg with an
enrolment of 136 pupils.31 In time education for the Indian
children of Pageview and Fordsburg were provided in Forsburg at the
Johannesburg Indian Secondary School (JSS) and Bree Street Indian
Government Primary School (BIGS). These still exist and feature
prominently in the community, as a large segment of future
community leaders were educated here.32 BIGS and JSS were jointly
administered during the period 1948 1988. During this period many
children did not go beyond Std 7 (Grade 9) for then their parents
required their presence in their shops.33 In 1955 a teachers
training college was also opened exclusively for the training of
Indian teachers in Fordsburg, The Transvaal College of Education.34
The other school in Fietas was the Indian Girls Primary School on
Krause Street.35 30 Bhana & Brain pp.77-78 31 Arkin AJ, p.107
32 Interview, Dr Y Eshak, 26 March 2008 33 Carrim N, Fietas: A
Social History of Pageview: 1948-1988, Save Pageview Association,
Johannesburg, 1990 p.42 34 Arkin AJ, p.107 p.121 Kuppusami C &
Pillay MG, Pioneer Footprints: Growth of Indian Education in South
Afria: 1860-1970, Nasou Ltd, Cape Town, 1978, , p.44-45 35 Carrim
N, p.40
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Religious institutions Today a large number of mosques can be
found in Fordsburg and Mayfair. The most important and oldest of
these is the Hamidia Mosque at 2 Jennings Street, Newtown. This is
where in 1908 Mahatma Gandhi addressed numerous meetings and on 10
January 1908 presided over a gathering at which passive resisters
burnt their passes in protest against new discriminatory
legislations. The Star reported:
The meeting was held in the Mosque grounds, Newtown, at 11
oclock, and despite the short notice of the meeting there was a
large gathering. For the purpose of such [a] meeting a platform had
been erected I the grounds and setaing accommodation was provided
by means of the serviceable paraffin tins which were strewn about
in thousands. On the platform were Essop Ismail Mia, Chairman of
the British Indian Association, an Indian priest in artistic
Oriental garb, and Mr Gandhi.36
This meeting signalled the resumption of the passive resistance
campaign. On 16 and 23 August 1908, at public ceremonies at the
mosque, more passes were burnt. Recreational facilities During the
period 1948-1988 three cinemas functioned in Pageview, but many
people also attended movies at the Lyric and the Avalon in
Fordsburg. The people of Fietas considered the Fordsburg cinemas as
elite cinemas, as these were more expensive but also safer than
those in Fietas itself, The Taj, The Royal and The Star.
Going to the bios was a major social event on Saturday nights.
You needed to book your tickets well in advance. Everybody used to
dress up for the occasion. It was a time and place where everybody
could check everybody else out. (Mr Y Patel)37
Cinemas provided much-needed social recreational outlets in the
Indian community and many people used it for entertainment over
weekends. In addition, it played an important part in providing
cinemagoers with heroes and role models, especially gangsters who
styled themselves on the American movies they saw.38 Sporting
amenities During the early part of the twentieth century, the
Rangers Football Grounds, today the Arthur Bloch Park in Mayfair
South provided much needed sporting facilities for not only white
working-class men, but equally for Indian working class men. The
Rangers Football Club was founded by a group of British miners in
1889 and regularly used these fields. It also attracted Indian
teams from Fordsburg and Mayfair. Between 1910 and 1913 soccer
games between a team passive resisters from Pretoria and a team
from Johannesburg were held on these fields. Gandhi attended
matches there in June and September 1911.39 In Mayfair on Queens
Road, the Phineas McIntosh Park at the top end of Church street was
an important recreational area for the residents of Fietas. Soccer
games were regularly played here.40 During the early 1980s in an
effort to prevent these 36 Itzkin E, Gandhis Johannesburg:
Birthplace of Satyagraha, Witwatersrand, p.55 37 Carrim N, p.75 38
Carrim N, p.74-75 39 Itzkin E, p.58 40 Carrim N, p.56
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games from continuing the Johannesburg City Council imported
truckloads of soil and re-landscaped the park by creating
artificial hillocks on the former sportsfields.41
AFRIKAANS-SPEAKING POPULATION During the 1890s and early 1900s
Afrikaans-speaking rural migrants who faced destitution as a result
of the war, droughts, crop failures, and plagues of locusts or
dispossession as a result of the Anglo Boer South African War
flocked to Johannesburg in search of a better life. Many found
refuge in the poor and grimy Fordsburg. From the outset it was a
multi-cultural melting pot of people who were all struggling to
make ends meet. Since the Malay Location later Pageview - was in
such close proximity to Fordsburg and Mayfair, Indians and local
Afrikaans speakers lived and worked together. Given that they found
themselves in similar straightened economic circumstances, they
inevitably developed strong links of mutual support. From the
outset Afrikaans speakers resident in Fordsburg demanded ethnic
separation with regard to living areas in terms of hygiene factors.
In 1889 a Dutch petition maintained that they did not wish
separation from Indians (Arabs) shop owners but from Colies (sic).
Nevertheless they never demanded that the Indian and Chinese be
accommodated in separate locations. Indian traders allowed local
Afrikaans speakers to buy food and other items on credit, based on
a system in which clients who were literate, wrote up what they
bought since the traders could often not read or write. A mutual
system of trust and honesty existed.42 Stals also outlines how many
Afrikaans-speaking women in Fordsburg took in washing, not only for
fellow Afrikaners, but also for Indians who lived in the area. In
addition, he mentions that some of these women took the step to
marry Indians whom they met in Fordsburg, because he was the only
person who had always been good to her.43 Whereas Stals cites these
examples as so-called moral decay among poor white Afrikaners, from
another perspective these examples point to a community whose ties
went beyond merely the financial and economic level, but also
extended into a social dimension. Men and women, it would seem,
overcame not only the barriers of race, but also of language and
religion. During the twenties especially migrants arriving in the
city rural migrants used the working class areas of Fordsburg and
Vrededorp as initial refuge and then stepping-stones from where
they then moved regularly, almost on a monthly basis. Stals
mentioned that Afrikaans speakers tended to be a transient
community, but does not address the issue that these migrants may
have been so down and out that they possibly skipped their
accommodation without paying rent. Nevertheless during the early
1920s, after the Rand Revolt, the Nationalist Party captured the
Vrededorp and Fordsburg seats, as well the constituency of the
North East Rand.44 It remained an Afrikaner Nationalist stronghold,
for during the 1940s, prior to the election victory of 1948,
Minister BJ Schoeman represented Fordsburg and was the only
Witwatersrand member of the Purified Nationalist Party in
parliament.45 41 Personal observation 42 Stals ELP, Vol,I p. 175 43
Stals ELP, Vol II, p.30. 44 Stals ELP, Vol,I vol II p.90 45 Stals
ELP, Vol,I p.99
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When their fortunes allowed it, and given the fact that they
were not legally restricted to live in only one area, if many of
these Afrikaans families moved to better accommodation in Mayfair
and suburbs such as Turffontein in the south or Jeppestown in the
east.46 As a result by 1945 research done showed that in an area
such as Fordsburg, only about 9% of Afrikaners living there were
homeowners.47 Education Surprisingly, children were not totally
absent from the early male-dominated mining camp days of
Johannesburg. During the earliest years of the city, residents
Uitlanders as well as local ZAR burghers could choose between Dutch
medium government school education or English medium private
education, since the then ZAR did not sponsor non-protestant,
non-Dutch medium education. This included English-medium Catholic
and Jewish sponsored education. As a result most English speaking
denominations, such as the Anglicans, founded their own schools. 48
In August 1889 is the Spes Bona Skool in die Brickfields was
founded with as principal one CF Naude. It started with 67 pupils
and in 1895 it has 165 pupils and 6 teachers. It was the biggist
Afrikaans school in Johannesburg, but closed at the outbreak of the
Anglo Boer South African War in 1899.49 The Fordsburg Church School
became another prominent Afrikaans school. It opened its doors in
January 1891 and by 1892 had 91 pupils and 3 teachers in a
building, which was used both as a school and as a church hall.
However, it did not escape the trauma of major events, which shook
the city. It badly damaged during the dynamite explosion of 19
February 1896. In the same year and in 1898 when small pox broke
out in the city the school had to close. It also faced local
competition when in 1891 the Fordsburg Public School was founded in
opposition to the church school. The latter had 97 pupils, but was
totally destroyed during the explosion. However it reopened and by
early 1899 it had 340 pupils and 300 parents whom were Afrikaans
speaking. The school also closed at the outbreak of the war, only
to reopen as a private school after the British occupation of the
city in June 1900. After the war and as a result of Lord Alfred
Milners Anglicisation policies, CNO (Christian Nationalist
education) schools came into existence to provide mother tongue
education to Afrikaans-speaking children. By the end of 1903 the
Fordsburg school building was completed at the cost of about 2 000
pounds and became known as the Goede Hoop School catering for 315
pupils.50 Religious Institutions
46 In time they and their rural brethren were referred to as
Poor Whites and during the early 1930s became the subject of
intense study during the research conducted by the Carnegie
Commission.Chipkin p. 25 47Stals ELP, Vol,I vol II p.27 48 Kaplan M
& Robertson M, Founders and Followers: Johannesburg Jewry
1887-1915,Vlaeberg Publishers, Cape Town, 1991, p.232 49 Stals ELP,
Vol,I vol I, p.127 50 Stals ELP, Vol II, p.132
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The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in Johannesburg divided its
parishes into geographical regions. As a result Fordsburg and
Langlaagte fell into the Witwatersrand-West regions. In Fordsburg
the church obtained two stands on which a school building was
erected to be used as a school and church building. A church
building was reconstructed after the explosion and as a result of
the rapid growth of this suburb and settlement of Afrikaans
speaking workers, the parish of more than 1000 souls later formally
divided into the Langlaagte and Fordsburg parishes. The first
minister of the DRC in Johannesburg was rev. JN Martins and a rev.
D Theron was the first minister to serve in the Fordsburg
congregation.51 Social problems Like impoverished urban communities
worldwide, the Afrikaans-speaking community experienced most of the
social ills found in such communities. During the early twentieth
century, prostitution, alcoholism and economic destitution remained
huge problems in the area.52 Young girls of South African origin,
mostly driven into prostitution by poverty, operated from the white
working class suburbs of Fordsburg and Vrededorp in Johannesburgs
redlight area, what was called the Game Reserve. The size of this
redlight area can be deduced from the fact during the 1930s a
probation officer, one VP Steyn reported that between 1932 and 1938
more than 500 prostitutes were arrested, and it was thought that
between 300 and 400 street prostitutes were operating. In 1949,
Louis Freed published his thesis on European prostitution in
Johannesburg.53 According to him most of the young prostitutes
lived in Fordsburg, Vrededorp, Bez Valley, Kensington and
Turffontein, all white working class suburbs of Johannesburg.
However, the majority of prostitutes still operated in Vrededorp,
central Johannesburg and Braamfonein. Teen prostitution seemed to
have been less of a problem, as most of the young prostitutes were
girls were older than 21. For the most part, they started their
economically active lives working in clothing, textile and chemical
factories. Otherwise these young girls found work in so-called
dancing establishments or as waitresses in tea-rooms. THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY OF FORDSBURG The majority of the early Jewish residents
of Johannesburg were traders, craftsmen and small businessmen. Many
of them arrived on the Rand as refugees fleeing persecution in
Western Russia, Lithuania and Latvia and settled in the white
working class areas of Johnnesburg, such as Fordsburg and Mayfair.
Without any resources many started off as peddlers or participated
both legally and illegally in the liquor trade. During the early
years of the Rand a section of the population, both male and female
also dealt in the prostitution to make a living, a problem, which
the Jewish welfare organisation, the Chevra Kadisha, tried to deal
with. Many workers also arrived profoundly influenced by socialist
ideals and played a crucial role in the establishment of trade
unions and subsequent strike action on the Witwatersrand.54 51
Stals ELP p.121 52 Stals ELP p.35 53 Freed L, The Problem of
European Prostitution in Johannesburg, Juta, Johannesburg, 1949. 54
Musiker N & R, Historical Dictionary of Greater Johannesburg,
Scarecrow Press Inc., USA, 1999
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Evidence that Fordsburg and Mayfair had a sizeable Jewish
community can be found in the establishment of synagogues in the
area, since orthodox Jewish customs required that Jewish
congregants to live within walking distance of the shul. During a
schism in the Johannesburg Jewish religious community during the
1890s, a number of East European Jews seceded and formed their own
congregation in Fox Street Ferreiratown, whilst another breakaway
group gathered in Fordsburg.55 In 1906 these rifts healed to the
extent that Max Langerman, who was very active in Jewish affairs in
Johannesburg, laid the foundation stone not only of the new
Fordsburg Synagogue but also the Jeppestown, Germiston and
Krugersdorp synagogues.56 As was the case with other religious
denominations, the shul premises also served as an educational
facility. A picture dated 1906 shows a group of some 25 boys who
attended the Talmud Torah of the Fordsburg Synagogue, an indication
that Fordsburg not only houses a large number of Jewish families,
but that they resided long enough to send their children for
religious instruction. If the clothing of the boys in the picture
can be taken as a gauge, this was a largely impoverished
community.57 The B Gundelfinger warehouse in Pine Road, Fordsburg
is representative of the Jewish presence in this area. B
Gundelfinger whose name is still to be found on the building was a
well-known name in the early history of Johannesburg. He was Benno,
who with his brothers Isaac, Abraham and Karl played an important
role in the commercial life of early Johannesburg. The first
brother to arrive in Johannesburg was Isaac. He was born in 1862 in
Babaria, Germany and arrived in Cape Town in 1883 from where he
settled in Beaufort West in 1885.58 With news of the discovery of
gold spread, he closed shop in the Karoo and trekked to
Johannesburg in March 1887. 59 He prepared a mule train of three
wagons laden with merchandise and building material, which arrived
on the Rand in May 1887, accompanied by his younger brother,
Abraham, then aged 16. By the end of 1887 Isaac moved his general
store, which was first located in a marquee tent to a more
permanent structure in President Street close to Market Square. At
the same time Gundelfinger also dug the first well in Johannesburg
in Marshallstown and sold the water at a sixpence a bucket. It
would seem that water was such a scarce commodity that the well was
stolen dry during the night. In 1889, his brothers Benno and Karl
followed him to the goldfields. Isaac sold his business to Benno in
January 1890, with assets amounting to more than 8 000 pounds and
profits of more than 3000 pounds per month. From 1892 the firm B
Gundelfinger listed in the directory as Grocer, bottle store,
importer of fancy goods and general hardware, tobacco and cigar
merchants and proceeded to become a famous Johannesburg grocery
store. After 1900 Benno, who suffered from asthma sold the business
to the Kaumheimer family and retired to Switzerland. They continued
to trade under the Gundelfinger name. Isaac Gundelfinger/Gundle
continued to be an importer of goods into South Africa, especially
Johannesburg. He was noteworthy for his efforts to improve the
poultry industry in the country. He died in 1936, but his 55 Kaplan
M, p.77 56 Kaplan M, p.208 57 Kaplan M, p.231 58 Kaplan M,
pp.116-117 59 Kaplan M, p.22-23
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sons continued the business.60 During World War I, during
anti-German rioting in Johannesburg, the Gundelfinger store in the
city centre was burnt down.61 The warehouse in Pine Road, Fordsburg
is a reminder of this trading family. The English-speaking
community The English-speaking community of Fordsburg consisted of
immigrant miners from Great Britain, who settled in the suburb and
used mostly English as medium of communication. As with the
Afrikaans speaking and Jewish communities of Johannesburg, a
systematic history of the citys English-speaking working class
community is yet to be written. Within this larger picture the
story of the English speaking section of Fordsburg and Mayfair
remains to be investigated. However, the religious institutions
found in these suburbs serve as reminders of the predominant
presence of an English speaking community during the early years of
the 20th century. Of particular importance is the Anglican church
on Park Road, which borders on mining land and Main Reef Road.
Hyslops discussion of early white trade unionism in Johannesburg
gives some clues as to the nature and composition of this segment
of the Fordsburg community.
An important factor in the new strength of trade unionism on the
Rand was the influx of skilled artisans who had experience of the
British and Australian labour movements. Some of the men and been
attracted to the Transvaal by the revival of the mines after the
interruptions caused by the war. Other had come as soldiers in the
British Army or the 16 000-strong Australian military contingent,
and decided to settle in southern Africa after the end of
hostilities. The Australians played a particularly strong role in
stiffening the backbone of the Rand unions, as did a small but
significant number of Clydesiders and a scattering of English and
Irish activists.62
A more systematic study of this sector of the community would
provide more information on this segment of the community.
60 Kaplan M p.129-130 61 Shorten J, The Johannesburg Saga, John
R Shorten, (Pty) Ltd. Under the authority of the Johannesburg City
Council, Johannesburg, 1970, p.273. 62 Hyslop J, p.162
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SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF FORDSBURG AND MAYFAIR 1893
THE BRICKFIELDS MEMORANDUM FACTORY63 On finding rich clay banks on
along the upper reaches of the Fordsburg Spruit, within walking
distance from the new mining camp, ZAR burghers who came to
Johannesburg in search of their own pot of gold, more prosaically
set up clay mixers and drying kilns and with the help of local
African labourers set out to produce and sell bricks. An active
brickmaker who owned a clay mixer and employed three African
workers could make up to 2 500 brick per day and sell these at 10
shillings per 1000. This represented a good living, made easier by
the fact that brickmakers needed only to buy a brick-making licence
at 5 shillings per month. This provided him with clay to work, a
place to build crude shelters for himself, his family and his
workers on the same site. Soon local burghers who could not afford
to live in expensive boarding houses bought licences and erected
their own shacks in the Brickfields. Brickmaking became the third
largest industry in the ZAR after mining and farming. However, the
area soon became Johannsburgs first slum. By 1896 more land was
required for the extension of the railway marshalling yards between
Park Station and Braamfontein station. At the time some 7 000
people of all races had congregated onto the Brickfields, only 1
500 of which were bona-fide brickmakers. This population was
augmented by some 1 200 horses and mules and 450 wagons also
stationed in the Brickfields. These licence holders were given
notice to vacate the Brickfields to make place for the proposed
railway yards, but as the Brickmakers Association successfully
petitioned the ZAR government for alternative brickmaking sites on
the farm Waterval and accommodation further to the west. The manner
in which they petitioned the government earned them the dubious
accolade of being a memorandum factory. In return for the loss of
their stands, brickmakers could buy land in a newly established
Burghersdorp, laid out between Randjeslaagte, Fordsburg and the
existing Indian Location. This was Johannesburgs first affordable
housing scheme, since the government restricted new owners from
selling their stands on the open market. However, Burghersdorp
residents again successfully petitioned the government and was
eventually given permission to sell their land to the highest
bidder. A portion of the study area is today still called
Burghersdorp. 1896 THE DYNAMITE EXPLOSION February 1896 the slum
area of Fordsburg, Burghersdorp, Vrededorp and part of Indian
Location was hit by a massive dynamite explosion, when 55 tons of
explosives blew up and created a crater of 76m x18m x 9m, the size
of a four-storey parking garage. It damaged or destroyed 1 500
houses and killed 72 people, mostly in 63 Taken from Van Onselen C,
Johannesburgs Jehus, 1890-1914, in Studies in the Social and
Economic History of the Witwatersrand: 1886-1914, New Babylon, New
Nineveh, Vols I & II, Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1982.
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Fordsburg, Vrededorp, the Indian Location. A disaster fund was
instituted and many people received aid to rebuild their homes,
often better than those they had lost. The explosion focused
attention on the squalor and appalling conditions in the area.
Something had to be done, but before action could be taken the
Anglo Boer South African War broke out in October 1899. A mass
exodus of foreign-born miners, traders and workers of all races
took place, whilst ZAR burghers who lived in Johannesburg left to
join the ZAR commandos. Only those who were too poor remained
behind. Amongst them were Boer women who were left destitute in
Fordsburg and Burghersdorp and were forced to resort to looting
deserted shops and unoccupied homes. 1904 JOHANNESBURGS FIRST
FORCED REMOVAL, DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIAN LOCATION Soon after the
British occupation of Johannesburg in June 1900 the redevelopment
of the Burghersdorp and Indian Location area received attention. It
was decided to declare the area as an Insanitary Area, which should
be expropriated, demolished and redeveloped. In 1902 a Commission
of Enquiry was appointed to report on the Johannesburg Insanitary
Area Improvement Scheme. However, as experience petitioners, the
Burghersdorp residents as well as their Indian Location neighbours
lodged 234 objections. A total of 33 stand holders in the Indian
Location appointed a representative to object on their behalf.
Evidence presented showed that about 55% of the houses in the area
were in a passable condition, not worse than elsewhere in the
city.64 This list of petitioners provides a interesting insight in
the way in which the multi-racial and multi-cultural community of
Burghersdorp was constituted. Ostensibly, the new British
authorities advocated the declaration of the area as an insanitary
area and its redevelopment to regularise the grid iron pattern of
the city and with the extension of Bree and Jeppe Streets would
link the western areas to the centre of town. The land so close to
the centre of the city was too valuable to be allowed to remain a
slum. By September 1903 the Johannesburg City Council (JCC) had
expropriated all the property in the area, but did not know where
to accommodate the 1600 Indian and 1 400 African residents of the
Indian Location. The matter was resolved in March 1904 when an
outbreak of alleged bubonic plague was detected in the Location and
all inhabitants of six city blocks were summarily removed to an
emergency camp in Klipspruit, 16km west of the city on the farm
Klipspruit, newly acquired by the JCC to accommodate the citys
much-needed gravitational sewage farm. The Indian Location was
burnt to the ground in a fire, which lasted for three days, the
largest inferno ever seen in the city. The African residents of the
location remained in Klipspruit, later renamed Pimville, the oldest
surburb of the future Soweto. Indians evicted in this manner
eventually returned to the area and took up residence in Pageview,
laid out in 1894 as well as the northern part of Fordsburg.65
64 Taken from E Brink, pp.12-16 65 Beavon K, p.75-78
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1890s and 1900s THE JOHANNESBURG CAB DRIVING INDUSTRY In his
essay, Johannesburgs Jehus on the development of the cab-driving
industry, Charles Van Onselen typifies Fordsburg as the heart of
cabby-country and adds that this constituency also merged and
extended into the adjacent areas of the Malay Location [as Pageview
was known at the time], the Brickfields and Vrededorp.66 This
observation provides a clue that from at least the 1890s residents
of these areas were bound by close social and economic ties, which
crossed over racial lines. Van Onselen shows how the many men who
had no mining expertise or skills still managed to survive by
engaging in the local Johannesburg transport service which grew
exponentially with the development of the city itself. During the
early period until 1902 the city was served by scores of cab
drivers as well as horse drawn tramways, which at its height ran
along Main Street Fordsburg and ended at the southern end of
Central Road. By 1896 the cabdriver corps consisted of some 700 cab
drivers and 80 cab owners who resided within a three-mile radius of
the city centre. A large majority of these men resided in Fordsburg
and Newtown/Burgersdorp. As many as 300 cabbies were Muslim men who
came from the Cape. White cabbies were mostly English speaking men
originally from either Great Britain or the Cape, and Afrikaans
speaking men who had migrated to the city from the rural area. A
small number of Polish or Russion Jews also acted as cabbies
between 1897 and 1899.67 These men operated mainly from small,
two-wheeled Cape carts drawn by a single horse. From the early
1890s, at a cost of between 35 and 50 pounds, rural migrants who
had some knowledge of horses could therefore easily set themselves
up in this business which a man on his own could easily handle and
operate. The outcome of their working and living in the same area,
was reflected in the name of their association founded in 1896, the
Forsburg Vigilance and Cab Owners Association The outcome of their
working and living in the same area, was reflected in the name of
their association founded in 1896, the Forsburg Vigilance and Cab
Owners Association Most of these men working lived close to their
businesses, which by choice they kept mostly in Fordsburg, a
location, which provided them with easy access to their clientele
in the centre of the city as well as the Market Square where forage
supplies could easily be procured.. They frequently held meetings
at fellow cab-owners, one J Zeemans beerhall in Avenue Road,
Fordsburg. During the recession of 1896 between 200 and 300 cab
owners also met at the Mynpacht Hotel in Main Road Fordsburg to
discuss their economic plight. These men had no qualms to bypass
the local authority structures to address themselves directly to
the Kruger government in Pretoria, which in time promised the
petitioners to give careful consideration to their requests
regarding tariffs.68 At the end of the Anglo Boer South African War
(1899-1902) and with the installation of the new Milner
administration in Johannesburg, the car drivers also felt
66 Van Onselen C, Vol I p.175 67 Van Onselen C, Vol I
p.163-p.172 68 Van Onselen C, Vol I p.177
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the impact of the new administrations efforts to reorganise the
city and its services along more efficient British public service
lines. Opposition among cab drivers to new laws regarding fares was
such that on 15 January 1903 some 1 500 people involved in the
transport industry gathered on Market Square Fordsburg to discuss
the issue. As a result of this large gathering a list of cab
drivers grievances was sent to the Town Council, which re-looked
and amended the proposed new regulations. The Fordsburg protesters
claimed this concession as a victory for the working classes. Yet
cab drivers were still harassed when plying their trade especially
when on duty at race meetings at the Auckland Park Race Course and
when compelled to take out new and more expensive London-styled
licences. Dissatisfaction was again voiced at meetings in Forsburg
in 1905 when cabdrivers urged their Cab Drivers Union to call an
official strike. Despite the unions refusal to comply with this
request some 300 cab drivers called their own strike. Several
hundred gathered in Fordsburg at the Fordsburg Dip and from there
marched into the centre of the city, bringing public transport in
the city to a standstill. In true revolutionary tradition they
hoisted the Red Flag and sang the French national anthem, the
Marseillaise. Later that day they again regrouped in Avenue Road,
Fordsburg.69 However, despite successfully confronting the local
authority, the Fordsburg cab drivers could not hold their own
against the electric trams introduced in the city from 1906
onwards. As the tramlines extended further and further into the
suburbs, more and more cab drivers lost their livelihood. By 1908 a
further blow came with requests to the town council for the
introduction of a taxi-service for the city, no less than from a
former cab-owner, one B Golub from Terrace Road in Fordsburg. As
more Fordsburg cab-drivers were put out of work, poverty and
destitution became more and more prevalent in the area. In an
effort to make ends meet any former cabbies resorted to illegal
means of making a living such as prostitution and illicit liquor
sales. Indeed the Transvaal Indigency Commission of 1906-908
maintained that it was in Fordsburg and Vrededorp where the
collapse of the cab-driving industry caused the most hardship. By
1913 the remaining active cab-drivers in Fordsburg came under more
pressure from fellow residents who objected to them keeping stables
and providing accommodation for their black workers on their
premises. 70 1908 PASSIVE RESISTANCE CAMPAIGNS Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi, later known as Mahatma or Great Soul, lived in South Africa
between 1893 and 1914. During this period Gandhi developed the
philosophy of passive resistance or Satyagraha which he introduced
to great effect in colonial India in the 1940s. After the war, Lord
Alfred Milner, Governor of the Transvaal maintained the
discriminatory laws of the old republic and in 1906 a new
ordinance, the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance and the Asiatic
Registration Act inflicted even more stringent restrictions on
Indians. It prohibited further Indian immigration into the
Transvaal, provided for the deportation of illegal residents
and
69 Van Onselen C, Vol I p.186-190 For a detailed discussion of
the strike action of the cab drivers see Van Onselens article. 70
Van Onselen C, Vol I pp.193-95
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required every Indian legally in the Transvaal to carry a
registration certificate at all times. Gandhi organised numerous
passive resistance campaigns in the Transvaal and in Natal, which
revolved around the burning of passes and often resulted in prison
sentences for passive resisters. Among other campaigns in August
1908 Indians in Johannesburg burnt more than 2 000 registration
certificates and 500 trade licenses at meetings held at the Hamida
Mosque in Jennings Street, Newtown. The resistance reached a climax
when the government could not ignore the open defiance and jailed 1
500 protestors. By 1909 with most of the passive resistance leaders
in prison, the resistance subsided.71 1913/1914 STRIKES On 27 May
1913, white workers of the New Kleinfontein Mine in Benoni downed
tools after the new manager retrenched a number of artisans and
ordered five underground engineers to work a full day on Saturdays.
The strikers demanded a 48-hour work-week and a half-holiday on
Saturday. The Kleinfontein miners held a number of meetings in
Benoni and before long workers from other mines on the
Witwatersrand and also in Johannesburg, began to strike in sympathy
of the Kleinfontein miners. The Chamber of Mines, intent on
breaking the trade unions that organised white workers, refused to
give in to the workers demands, and called on the government to
deal with the strikers. General Jan Smuts, then the Minister of
Defence, deployed a large number of imperial troops to the
Witwatersrand as a result. This did not deter the miners and on 4th
July trade union leaders called for a general strike. Within days
more than 19 000 white miners responded favourably to the call and
almost all the mines on the Witwatersrand were affected by the
strike. The strike turned violent very quickly. On the first day of
the strike armed imperial troops clashed with workers who had
gathered in Market Square in Johannesburg for a protest meeting.
Angry strikers reacted by burning down a section of Park Station
and attacking the offices of The Star newspaper. Imperial troops
patrolled the streets of Johannesburg and dealt harshly with the
strikers, killing 100 strikers and innocent bystanders during the
first two days of the strike. The strike spilled over into
neighbouring Newtown and almost certainly affected Fordsburg as
well. More research is required to determine the extent and nature
of strike activity within Fordsburg itself. 1922 THE 1922 RAND
REVOLT72 On 2 January 1922 coal miners in Witbank downed tools over
proposed wage cuts. Eight days later the members of the South
African Industrial Federation voted in 71 Itzkin E, p.53-55 72
Shorten J, pp.207-338. Other standard works which relate the course
of this strike in detail include Walker IL & Weinbren B, 2000
Casualties: A History of the Trade Unions and the Labour Movement
in the Union of South Africa, South African Trade Union Council,
Johannesburg, 1961.
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favour of a strike and as many as 25 000 workers including
miners, power station employees, and workers in the engineering
plants, joined the coal workers. One of the key factors that
contributed to this strike by white workers was the intention of
mine owners to replace skilled white workers with lower paid
semi-skilled black workers. On 28 January the strikers were further
angered when the Chamber of Mines announced that 2 000 or more
white miners would lose their jobs and that paid public holidays
would be abolished. Although communists tried to gain sway over the
strikers and urge them to strike for higher wages, as opposed to
the protection of the colour bar, Afrikaner nationalists
increasingly won influence over the strikers and the strikers began
to organize themselves along commando lines. By 10 March, workers
had seized virtually all of Johannesburg and called for armed
insurrection and the overthrow of the state. On the same day
General Jan Smuts declared martial law and called in the military
to bring the strikers under control. Aeroplanes dropped bombs on
Benoni and Germiston and there was shooting and fighting in the
streets of Johannesburg.73 The commandos retaliated by raiding
police stations, but after five days of fighting, during which
Fordsburg was rocked by artillery fire, the strike was broken and
called off. More than 200 people had lost their lives during the
strike and as many as 4 748 strikers were arrested. Out of those
arrested, 46 were charged with murder and 18 sentenced to death,
but in the end only four of the strikers were hanged. The suburb of
Fordsburg played a significant role in the Rand Revolt. Soon after
the declaration of the strike, striker leaders used the Market
Square and other venues near Benoni, to train their strikers
commandos. Police also sheltered on the dump at Robinson Mine to
take aim at strikers in Fordsburg.74 Furthermore according to
Shorten;
At Fordsburg casualties were lighter though fighting was more
spectacular. There the strikers were strongly entrenched around the
Market Square where Percy Fisher had his headquarters in the Market
Buildings. Trenches, surmounted by sandbags, had been dug around
the northern, eastern and western boundaries of the Square which
was protected on its south side by Market Buildings and Sacks
Hotel; barricades had been thrown across Main and Commercial Roads
and within the Square another trench that ran along the northern
and eastern side of Market Buildings formed a second line of
defence.75
Strikers were driven off Brixton ridge where their positions
were bombarded by artillery and by attacks from the air. The
strikers were also attacked from the western Mayfair side, so as to
entrap the strikers in Forsburg itself. 73 Clarke J, Like It Was,
The Star, Johannesburg, 1987, pp.73-76 74 Shorten J, p.316 75
Shorten J, p.328.
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1930s THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKING CLASS HOUSING Octavia Hill
Housing Scheme, Fordsburg During the 1930s there was a huge housing
shortage amongst whites in Johannesburg, to the extent that Dr A J
Milne, the municipal officer of health of Johannesburg considered
whites to be living in slum conditions in certain of the poorer
districts such as Fordsburg, portions of Jeppe and Doornfontein and
Newlands. Only in Mayfair was housing considered to be somewhat
more reasonable. Here rental for two bed-roomed houses was between
7 and 8 pound per month. In 1934 the Johannesburg Housing Utility
Co. was formed in order to redevelop slum areas. Under its auspices
the first housing scheme to be built was the Octavia Hill
apartments built in Fordsburg. The cornerstone was laid in
September 1936 by the then Governor-General Lord Clarendon and the
mayor of Johannesburg. Johannesburg residents also contributed
financially to the scheme, to augment a low interest loan from the
state. At the time it was also the declaration of Vrededorp as a
slum was also recommended. 76 According to Mrs Bertha Solomon,
member of Parliament for Jeppestown between 1939 and 1958, The
Octavia Hill Housing Scheme was named after a British woman, Mrs
Octavia Hill,
a famous English housing and slum clearing expert on the
necessity, not only of doing away with slums, but also of
re-educating slum dwellers into decent ways of living.77
The housing scheme still exists and still provides housing to
impoverished families. 1950s and 1980s POLITICAL STUGGLES The
Launch of the 1952 Defiance Campaign In January 1952 leaders of the
African National Congress (ANC) sent an ultimatum to the
government. The government was given one month to scrap all unjust
laws on the statute books. The apartheid rulers failed to comply, a
massive Defiance Campaign would be launched. Dr D F Malan, the
Prime Minister, did not repeal any laws and warned that the
government would use the full machinery at its disposal to quell
any disturbances. In spite of these threats, it was decided that
the Campaign should go ahead. Thousands of people gather at Freedom
Square in Fordsburg on 6 April 1952 exactly 300 years after Jan van
Riebeeck and the first Europeans arrived to settle at the Cape, to
witness James Moroka, president of the African National Congress
(ANC), and Yusuf Dadoo, head of the South African Indian Congress,
launch the Defiance Campaign in Johannesburg. Especially Dr YM
Dadoo and Dr GM Naicker of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) were
virulent in their opposition of the institution of the governments
apartheid measures. They played leading roles in the 1952 Defiance
Campaign and the formulation of the 1955 Freedom Charter.78 76
Stals, ELP, Vol II, pp.23-25 77 Solomon B, Time Remembered, The
Story of a Fight, Howard Timmins, Cape Town, 1968, p.95 78 Arkin
AJ, p.177
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During the 1980s the Transvaal and Natal Indian Congresses (NIC)
affiliated with the United Democratic Front (UDF), and played a
leading role in the struggle against apartheid from within the
country. At the time the TIC and NIC stood for an unqualified
one-man one-vote outcome to the struggle. In October 1988 a South
African delegation of Indian members met with the ANCE in Lusaka,
Zambia.79 1970s COMMUNITY STRUGGLES AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE
ORIENTAL PLAZA Indian residential rights severely prescribed by the
Gold Law of 1908. As a result the areas where Indians were allowed
to live became severely overcrowded from an early stage. This was
especially the case in Pageview. By the outbreak of World War II in
1939 there were 14 000 Indians living in Johannesburg, almost half
7 000 lived in Pageview, consisting of 469 stands occupied by
single-storey houses.80 By 1979 there were some 30 000 Indian and
60 000 coloured people who were inadequately housed in the
Johannesburg area. Legally Indians only had access to a small
number of overcrowded flats in Fordsburg. The only other
alternative was accommodation in the distant area of Lenasia.81 As
a result Pageview or Fietas, remained the home of some 5 000
Indians, both Muslim and Hindu wedged between the officially white
suburbs of Vrededorp, Fordsburg and Mayfair, was forcibly removed
in the early 1970s to Lenasia, a racially segregated area some 30km
to the south of Johannesburg. Its 14th Street was its main
commercial node which attracted shoppers of all walks of life from
the entire Johannesburg was also destroyed. In compensation for the
loss of both their homes and businesses in Pageview, the City of
Johannesburg and the National Department of Community Development
(COMDEV) conceptualised the development of the Oriental Plaza a
shopping area where the evicted Indian traders could be resettled.
Earliest tenants took occupation in 1974, but the complex was only
completed in 1975, then at a cost of R16.5 million. Many traders
who were forced to relocate their businesses there found that rents
were much took high. Since it was not easily accessible for black
and coloured consumers travelling by bus or train, the Plaza
initially only catered for white suburban consumers. 82 Ultimately
some 400 traders set up shop in the Plaza. Urban geographer, Keith
Beavon is of the opinion;
The fact that the Oriental Plaza, in the heart of Fordsburg, has
in time succeeded splendidly in commercial terms, in no way
diminishes the injustices described here.83
Yet, it is nevertheless remarkable that neither Mandy nor
Beavon, authoritative voices on the urban geography and development
of Johannesburg remain silent as to the type of urban fabric, which
was demolished in Fordsburg to make way for the Plaza. It is 79
Arkin AJ, p.185 80 Beavon K, p.191 81 Beavon K, p.213 82 Mandy N,
p.119 Chapter 7, pp.122-124. 83 Beavon K, p.194
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suggested that since the Indian residents of Fordsburg lived
mostly along the northern edge of the suburb, from Avenue Road
northwards towards the border of Pageview, the demolition of this
portion of historic Fordsburg when unnoticed because it was most
probably mostly occupied by Indian tenants. 1980s THE STRUGGLE FOR
LEGAL HOUSING A general critical housing shortage existed in the
Indian community, which had not been alleviated with the forced
removal to Lenasia and elsewhere. Many Indians and Coloureds found
refuge in living illegally in officially white areas, such as the
high-rise area of Hillbrow and the suburb of Mayfair which adjoins
Fordsburg and the former Pageview from where they had been evicted.
This area was a lower-income white area. However, the situation
changed when a Mayfair resident, Gladys Govender obtained a Supreme
Court ruling that she could not be evicted from her house, which
she was illegally occupying because she had nowhere else to go.
Gladys Govender had lived in Fordsburg for 39 years, and raised
five children in a one roomed flat and had been on the waiting list
of a state house for 11 years. In 1979, desperate for bigger
accommodation she illegally rented accommodation in Mayfair in a
white-owned house, which because of its appalling condition no one
else would rent. When she was charged and convicted under the Group
Areas Act and issued with an eviction order the local community
organisation, Actstop, appealed the conviction, which was
overturned in 1982. The judge ruled that a person convicted under
the act could not be evicted unless adequate alternative
accommodation was available, which given the appalling shortage of
housing for Indian people, was not the case.84 Until such time as
the housing shortage had been alleviated or has been eradicated,
especially Indians were secured in their residences and could not
be evicted.85 This ruling paved the way for Indian families to move
into Mayfair, either as tenants or as buyers of properties. Between
1983 and 1987, 5 400 people or 1 200 families moved into the area.
These were mostly middle-class families whose incomes were about
25% higher than the working class white families which they
replaced. Beavon comments on this migration:
The new arrivals in Mayfair quickly set about upgrading their
accommodation. In some instances whole houses that had been
purchased were demolished and completely new units were erected.
The effect was that the real value of land on adjacent properties
rose. By 1987 property values for the suburbs as a whole had
increased by 161% compared with an average of only 20% across the
city. The greying process was also largely peaceful and successful
in other nearby inner suburbs on the western side of central
Johannesburg, notably Brixton and Crosby.86
This process contributed to pressure on government to repeal the
Group Areas Act.87
84 Beavon K, p.218-219 85 Mandy N, p.140-143 86 Beavon K p.219
87 Beavon K, p.220
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1980s THE BATTLE FOR MAYFAIR Mayfair was an old, established
area, dating back to the 1890s, characterised by detached and
semi-detached working-class brick houses. Its position adjacent to
the old Indian heartland of Pageview and Fordsburg made it a
logical outlet for Indians in desperate need of accommodation. In
the 1950s and 1960s working-class Afrikaans residents and
homeowners had slowly replaced the original working-class Jewish
residents. In the 1970s landlords were not unwilling to let
available accommodation increasingly middle-class Indian tenants
who in desperate need of housing who wanted to be close to the
local mosques and were willing to pay higher rentals. Using white
nominees, they also proved to be willing buyers of properties. By
early 1980s almost 60 Indian Families had moved into the available
housing stock, comprising 2 100 houses and 600 apartments. 88 In
1983 the announcement of a referendum to test the 1983 Constitution
among white voters, which would give Indians and coloured people a
say in the so-called tricameral parliament, focused sharp attention
on the suburb of Mayfair. The then Minister of Community
Development, Ben Kotze went on an inspection tour of Mayfair,
during which he ordered Indian and Coloured residents immediately
to vacate the area, a move which was aimed at seeking support from
local white voters. His pronouncement that these people did not
live in the sky before they came to MayfairThey can go back where
they came from caused a furore. The press retaliated by claiming
that it was Community Developments wanton destruction of Indian
areas such as Pageview that drove thousands to take up vacant
houses and flats in Mayfair and other fringe areas of white
Johannesburg.89 In 1983 the Department of Community Development
announced that besides providing more building stands in Lenasia
that the eastern part of Mayfair would be added to the so-called
Fordsburg Indian Group Areas, comprising portions of Fordsburg,
Burghersdorp and Mayfair East. At the time the Group Areas Board
found that there were 540 housing units in Fordsburg, 130 in
Burghersdorp and 400 in Mayfair. It was noted that some 70 Indian
families were already residing in the area and that an Indian
school and a Roman Catholic convent school also serviced the area
and contained many Indian owned businesses. The remaining white
people in the area were mainly tenants. 90
88 Beavon K, p.218 89 Mandy N, p.142 90 Beavon K, p.277-278
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