The Resettlement of Indians in Johannesburg D
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THE RESETTLEMENT OF INDIANS IN JOHANNESBURG D. A. HILL and M. W. CLUVER Mrs. Hill is National Treasurer and Mrs. Ctuver National Vice-President of the Black Sash. This paper was presented to National Conference in Durban. WHEN THE INDIANS first came to Johannesburg in the 1880's President Kruger had set aside the nCoolie Location'1 — the present Vrededorp and Pageview — in which they believed they would live in perpetuity. There are to-day certain areas in the city where there are large numbers of Indian Traders: Vre dedorp and Pageview, with its well known 14th Street, patronised by many white customers; West Market Street and its vicinity where there are big wholesalers of dry goods and small shops; Dia gonal Street where the fruit and vegetable shops are all Indian owned. Fordsburg has numbers of Indian shops and many of the wealthier Indians have their homes here. There are also Indian shops and houses in many other areas. It is the policy of the present government thority" and on the other incorporation by that all Johannesburg's Indian people the Johannesburg City Council. must move to Lenasia 22 miles to the south In Lenasia the township control comes un west of the city hall. Many have already der the Peri Urban board — a white bodv. moved and about 20,000 remain waiting; to The residents may attend meetings of the hear their fate. board. A local committee of Lenasian In For the past ten years, Johannesburg In dians has an advisory function. dians have fostered the hope that if Group There are now approximately 35,000 Areas and residential segregation have to he people living in Lenasia. imposed on them the government would agree to the establishment of an area for Indians Lenasia: within the present Municipal boundaries and Lenasia is a bleak, flat area of country they have been supported in this by the City without trees and exposed to the cold south Council. But the government has been winds of winter. Lenz railway station is on adamant that Lenasia shall be the only town* the outskirts of Lenasia to the west. A weekly sliip for Indians, and have asked the City return ticket from Lenz to Johannesburg Council of Johannesburg to incorporate Lena* costs R2.00. fiia within its jurisdiction. They did not. No comprehensive town plan was drawn however, explain why the chosen area should up making provision for social amenities and he so far away in the first place nor did they services. The township is divided into four clarify the apparent contradiction of aiming sections: on the one hand at " a full fledged local au 1. Township Area. About 300 houses where The Black Sash, February* 1969. 20 Die Swart Serpt Februarie, 1969. land can be bought freehold and houses without breakfast. School feeding is not al are owner built. lowed. 2. Rainbow Valley. Houses cost approximately The High School was amongst the first R4,000.00 to build and can be bought on public buildings to be erected in Lenasia. As Hire Purchase over 25 years at R42.00 soon as it was completed Indian children were per month. In addition rates, taxes and no longer allowed to attend High School in water must be paid. Johannesburg itself. Parents had the choice of moving to Lenasia or making their child 3. Greyvitle. Each house consists of two ren travel 22 miles to and from school. rooms plus a kitchen and a bathroom with sewerage. Electricity can he laid on Primary schools in the Johannesburg area by arrangement, and each house has a are being closed down towards the end of small plot of land. The rent is R12.00 tins year. Thousands of pupils will be at per month. tempting to enrol in the already full schools 4. Thomsville. Sub Economic Housing. Two in Lenasia. room units, semi-detached, 8 or 4 in a group. Front room about 10' x 8\ back Medical Services: one smaller. There are no ceilings, no Coronation hospital, roughly 18 mile* stove, no chimney, no electricity and no away in Newclare, serves the township. This running water in the house. Houses are hospital runs a daily clinic in Lenasia from arranged in rows with a 30 yard area be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. No service is provided for tween the backs of the houses where those ill in bed and unable to attend the communal waterborn latrines (one per clinic. The Coronation ambulance serves four units) and water taps (one per four clinic patients only. units) arc located. The rent per unit is R1.84 cents per month. Two units can So great is the consciousness of the need for an ambulance to serve all in the township be hired by one family, when a hole is that Indians themselves have raised R5,000 knocked between the two back rooms. and bought an ambulance. There are private There are no bathrooms in the entire nurses and doctors in the district. area, the streets arc not tarred, and there The average size of a family is 7. A family are no street lights. clinic run by the Indian Social Welfare As The majority of people in Lenasia live in sociation was opened six months ago and 700 this area. people have attended it. Schooling: With no hospital at Lcnz, and the realisa The schools were prefabricated buildings tion by the Indian Community of this neces when Lenasia started 13 years ago. No per sity, the Indians themselves have collected manent structures have yet been built. There R40,000 towards a maternity wing when and are two High and 3 Primary Schools designed if the government builds a hospital at Lena to take roughly 500 children each but there sia. arc over 1000 children in each school. Whenever pleas are made by the commun Schooling is not compulsory and many child ity for services the answer is that there is no ren have been turned away for lack of ac money available. The Indians themselves commodation. are attempting to provide these services but There are 50 children per class and two there seem* to be a reluctance on the part of sessions per day to cope with the numbers. the authorities to accept them. The schools were formerly under the Trans vaal Education Department, but are now un Socia! Amenities: der the Department of Indian Affairs. Up There is a civic centre with one hall where to Standard VIII, all requirements and young people can congregate, and one cine schooling are free. Above Standard VIII ma. The only real recreation that people only set books are provided and other books have is walking the streets and visiting. When must be paid for. The system of Rand for the Olympic Committee visited South Africa Rand contributions for improvements has an area was fenced in and stands put up for been done away with for the Transvaal and a sports field. No sports field has actually anv amenities must be provided by parents. been laid out. Because parents leave home so early for In the freehold area and in Rainbow Val work, children frequently arrive at school ley gardens have been and are being esta- The Bhick Sash, February, 1969, 21 Vie Swart Serp, Februarie, 1969. Mished. This applies to a more limited ex a bazaar with 132 stands and a market with tent in Greyville. In ThomsviUe a minute 102 stands all to be rented by Indians. All area in front of each unit can be enclosed the present traders will have to be accommod and used but the majority of land is com ated in the "bazaar"' or will have to trade munal, bare vsld - - mostly dust. in Lenasia. This must mean a change in em* No African servants may be employed in ployment for many and economic ruin for the township. Kurd- are carried out to see many more. that this is enforced. ThomsviUe residents were living in slum condition? in back yards in Pageview, but Trading in Lenasia: tbeir move to ThomsviUe has not improved The shops are grouped at on, end of the their situation* The squalor of ThomsviUe township near the Railway station — at lea*t has to be seen to be believed. We talked to a mile away from some; of the bouses. one woman living there. She is better off The shops arc not well supported by the than most, the family rents two units for population of Lenasia, most ol whom find R3.68 per month, the husband earns R19.00 it easier to shop near their jjliice of work. per week and pays R9.00 per month for his White people in the vicinity patronise some railway ticket. He leaves home to work in of the shops. There are few shops but a Johannesburg at 5.30 a.m. and returns at fi new block of about six shops is being cons p.m. Their thvee children must play in the tructed to accommodate the displace'! dusty and sordid back yard between the businessmen of Johannesburg. No hawkers houses. licences are issued. Garages look prosperous. There arc many good Indian owned houses There are two factories in the area, a ^mall in Pageview and Fordsburg and compensa one making candles, employs 20-30 people tion is to be paid for them, but it is fre while another employs about 500 people quently only half what has been spent on the making small tools for the mines. The area house. surrounding Lenasia, apart from a Military Martinda!e: camp across the railway line, is open veld.