A Case Study of the Magazine Barracks Residents’ Relocation to Chatsworth

THE DESTRUCTION AND REMAKING OF ‘COMMUNITY’: A CASE STUDY OF THE MAGAZINE BARRACKS RESIDENTS’ RELOCATION TO CHATSWORTH By Karthigasen Gopalan A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Supervised By Professor Goolam Vahed COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES DECLARATION - PLAGIARISM I, ……………………………………….………………………., declare that 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Signed ……………………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements Firstly, I thank my mother Sandra and two brothers Vic and Saien who have given their fullest support and encouragement, especially my older brother Vic without whom my studies would not have been possible. I am also very grateful to the South African National Society who awarded me a generous bursary in 2012 and 2013 to assist with this study and to the organisation’s chair Naureen Craig. I also owe a thank you to the South African-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) for funding a project titled ‘Identity Belonging and Place in South Africa: A Case Study of Chatsworth,’ which this study formed part of. SANPAD also organised various workshops dealing with aspects of research such as proposal writing, which I was fortunate to be selected for. I owe a huge thank you to members of the Magazine Barracks Remembrance Association for giving up their time to assist me and to all those who volunteered to be interviewed. The members of the Association and affiliated Durban Municipal Pensioners’ Club were accommodating, friendly, and extremely helpful. While every participant was helpful, I owe special thanks to Danny Pillay, Vassie Muthen, Kiru Naidoo, and Jay Pillay who I consulted on many occasions. I also thank Pusphan Murugan and Swaminathan Gounden who were very supportive. Last but not least a huge thank you to my supervisor Goolam Vahed, for his tremendous patience throughout this study and for his extensive and excellent guidance. He provided extensive, critical and encouraging feedback on early drafts and pointed me to several key readings. He was also instrumental in encouraging and supporting my participation in various conferences during the course of this study and for putting me in contact with some of the organisations and individuals cited above. Needless to say, despite all the assistance from very knowledgeable people and organisations, all the short comings of this project are entirely my own. iii Abbreviations ANC African National Congress ABH Aryan Benevolent Home BCM Black Consciousness Movement BPC Black People’s Convention CBD Central Business District CFA Chatsworth Football Association CHAC Chatsworth Housing Action Committee DCC Durban City Council DIMES Durban Indian Municipal Indian Employees Society DMIEU Durban Municipal Indian Employees Union FOSA Friends of the Sick Association GAA Group Areas Act ISSC Indian Social Services Committee LAC Local Affairs Committee LRTB Local Road Transportation Board MBRC Magazine Barracks Remembrance Committee MOH Medical Officer of Health NED Natal Education Department NP National Party NPA National Provincial Administration NIC Natal Indian Congress NIO Natal Indian Organisation NRB Native Resettlement Board NTC National Transport Commission PAC Pan Africanist Congress iv SABS South African Bureau of Standards SACP South African Communist Party SAIC South African Indian Council SAIRR South African Institute of Race Relations SAR South African Railways SDILAC South Durban Indian Local Affairs Committee SDCF Southern Durban Civic Federation TIC Transvaal Indian Congress TUCSA Trade Union Council of South Africa USA United States of America v ABSTRACT The forced removals resulting from the implementation of the National Party Government’s Group Areas Act (1950) have had drastic implications for millions of South Africans across the country. Not surprisingly, there is a rich body of research on the motives, as well as the political and economic consequences, of this destructive piece of legislation. This study sought to move beyond these broader approaches which examined Group Areas from at a macro-level, by focusing specifically on the subjective experiences of one particular social group, who were affected by forced removals and how they rebuilt their lives. It focuses on South Africans of Indian decent (hitherto referred to as Indians) who were employed by the Durban Corporation, and lived in the Magazine Barracks which was one of several labour barracks located around the city of Durban during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the 1880s, low-paid Indian municipal employees lived in overcrowded conditions in the poorly built barracks. However, they adjusted to this lifestyle and devised mechanisms to cope with their daily challenges through voluntary networks and a strong culture of sharing and self-help. During the 1960s, the approximately 10 000 residents of the Magazine Barracks were displaced and relocated to Chatsworth, where they were split up and accommodated in different sections of the mammoth housing scheme. This has had drastic implications for former residents of the barracks and this study probes into the ways in which they responded to laws which were impose upon them. vi Table of Contents Contents Page Introduction 1 Literature review and justification for the choice of the topic 4 Research problem and objectives: Key questions addressed 12 Research problem and objectives: Broad issues investigated 14 Theoretical framework 16 Research methodology 21 Structure of the thesis 28 Key respondents of study 31 Chapter One Municipal Employees and the Magazine Barracks, c. 1880s – 1960s 41 Durban’s Indian municipal employees 41 Establishment of the Magazine Barracks 45 Trade union organisation 50 Everyday life at the Magazine Barracks 56 Cultural and Social Activities and Self-Help Societies 58 Religion 61 Education 64 Sport 69 Concluding remarks 71 vii Chapter Two The Group Areas Act and the Destruction of the Magazine Barracks, 1960-1965 81 Segregation before the Group Areas Act 82 Group Areas Act and the establishment of Chatsworth 88 Reaction of Magazine Barracks’ residents to relocation 91 Concluding remarks 99 Chapter Three Service Delivery Challenges and the South Durban Indian Local Affairs Committee (SDILAC), c 1965 – 1975 104 The South Durban Indian Local Affairs Committee (SDILAC) 106 Housing Conditions 110 Flood water damage and sewerage 113 Evictions 117 Overcrowding and slum conditions 119 Trading sites 121 Schooling 123 Parks and Amenities 124 Health facilities 126 SDILAC Critique of the DCC 127 Social effects of the housing crisis 130 Concluding remarks 132 viii Chapter Four The politicisation of transport 139 Bus service 139 Rail service 141 Mass protest meeting 144 Roads 151 Concluding remarks 154 Chapter Five Work, Education, and Social Mobility 157 Relocation and the higher cost of living 157 Economic mobility within the municipality 165 Supplementing incomes in the township 169 Work outside of the municipality 174 Education and upward mobility 178 Concluding remarks 184 Chapter Six Remaking Community: Religion, Culture, and Sport 188 Displacement and Dislocation 189 Religion 192 Cultural transformation 203 Comparative Memory 210 Sport 217 ix Concluding remarks 219 Conclusion 225 Bibliography 239 Primary Sources: Interviews 239 Durban National Archives Repository 240 Gandhi Luthuli Documentation Centre 240 Newspapers 240 Relevant unpublished research (dissertations/theses) 240 Relevant secondary sources 242 Contents: Figures Figure 1: Hand drawn Map of Magazine and Railway Barracks 44 Figure 2: Map shoring layout of Baumannville and Magazine Barracks 44 Figure 3: Photograph of Magazine Barracks Temple 63 Figure 4: Photograph of Depot Road School 66 Figure 5: Photograph depicting the library and the Drama Hall 69 Figure 6: Map depicting layout of Chatsworth 91 Figure 7: Areal view of Chatsworth Centre showing its location 123 Contents: Table TABLE 1 Racial Composition of Durban's Population 87 x INTRODUCTION The Group Areas Act (GAA), passed by the National Party (NP) dominated South African government in 1950 and amended in subsequent years, resulted in the destruction of many established, mainly black,1 communities throughout South Africa. Group Areas was one of the key instruments used by the NP to enforce its ideology of apartheid, which aimed to categorise all South Africans into one of four racial groups and to then segregate them as far as possible.2 The act aimed to achieve complete residential segregation by empowering the state to demarcate areas for specific racial

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