Prior to the Building of the New Township, the Black Population of Windhoek Had Been Housed in T'.-O Separate Informal Settlem Ents on the Periphery of the White Town
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Prior to the building of the new township, the black population of Windhoek had been housed in t'.-o separate informal settlem ents on the periphery of the white town. The larger or "main" location was situated to the west of the white township, while the smaller was located on the borders of Klein Windhoek in the east. In keeping with colonial prac tice, the locations were not administered as an integral part of the town. In 1927 an advisory board was established for the main locations. This consisted of 12 black members vsix elected and six appointed! under the chairmanship of the white location superintendent. Representation on the board was organized along ethnic lines, with the location super intendent ensuring by means of the appointed members th at each major ethnic or regional group would be represented. In 1932 the main loca tion was reorganized. Roads were laid out and ethnic subdivisions created, although it would appear that the ethnic divisions were not strictly applied. Plots were rented from the municipality for a minimal monthly fee, and all housing was built by the people themselves. Al though of a poor quality, these houses were of considerable economic and personal value to the people, as accommodation which provided a foothold in the urban areas and as a means of supplementing income through Plans to build a new black township in Windhoek were already mooted in the 1940’s, and by 1947 a committee of municipal and central government o ffic ia ls had been formed to look into the question of a new town ship. In the same year, Pokkiesdraai, a compound for Ovambo and other northern contract workers, was established not far from the future site of Katutura. Plans to move the main black township located on the western periphery of Windhoek only came to fruition in the 1950s, how ever, when they were given impetus by further growth and development of the white settlement and the more rigorous segregation policies of the new Nationalist administration in South Africa. By this time the white settlem ent had expanded close to the borders of the main location and the local authorities became increasingly concerned about health conditions in the o.-srcrowded, impoverished and neglected township. Opposition to the move manifested itself early, even among the cowered id collaborationist members of the Windhoek Location Advisory Board. It is one of the ironies of colonial thinking that extracts of the proceedings of early location board meetings quoted by o ffic ia ls at a meeting with township re-idents in 1959 to show that black residents had been adequately consulted about the move, should actually illustrate the opposition of residents to the move and the authorities' total disregard of their wishes. At a board meeting in June 1954, for example, boardman Aaron Mungunda (la te r dubbed by black n atio n alists as an "indefatigible, self-confessed agent of the South African government and police") stated: "We are fond of th is place and have no wish to move, but if we have to move, i t must be to the south-western side, because the north-western side is not good. We are in favour of the building of improved houses". In the one area where the board i ‘t. given a choice, the selection of a name for the new township, boardmen also expressed th eir rejection of the scheme. The name Katutwra, meaning "the place where peopJu do not live", was unaninously accepted by the board. Further evidence of resistance against removal is contained in the positions adopted by o ffic ia ls in relatio n to the move, In October 1959, for example, a white official drew attention to the fact that in terms of article 16 of Proclamation No. 56 of 1951, local au th o rities were empowered to condemn buildings which posed a health hazard, without being obliged to pay compensation. He went on to threaten that in those cases where people refused to cooperate, the local authorities might well refuse to pay compensation. At the same meeting when location residents were allowed to put questions to the officials attending the meeting, a ll the boardmen and other residents who expressed opinions were unanimous in their opposition to the move. The boardmen emphasized that the idea of the move had come from the town council. Both the board and the town ship residents had opposed the removal and had on several occasions brought this to the attention of the authorities. The board favoured better housing, but on the present site. While there was some disagree ment among speakers about whether the board had (under pressure from the adm inistration) fin ally approved the scheme, they unambiguously stated that they had o rig in ally opposed the move. Besides members of the advisory board, other residents also spoke at the meeting in October 1959, making i t absolutely clear that residents were implacably opposed to the removal. Among those who spoke were a number of people who held prominent positions in the newly-formed nationalist organizations. Speaker after speaker made it clear that they were not responsible for the new township and were determined to resist the removal. It was clear, they said, that the only reason for the erection of the new "location" was to accommodate South Africa’s apartheid poli cy. The admin' ’'on had claimed that it could not extend the exis ting towns' hree white land owners to the west of the town ship refused their property, Yet it expected 15 000 location residents to move. Was the administration not aware that it was trying to impose its apartheid policy on a place which did not belong to it? Opposition to the removal coalesced around a number of issues, the major being the contention that the move was primarily rcotWilei1 by the admi nistration's apartheid policy. The authorities had claimed on several occasions that the removal was necessary to improve the poor housing conditions in the Windhoek location. While those who opposed the move admitted that conditions in the location were appalling, they maintained that this was a result of poverty, which in turn was at least partly a result of the apartheid policy which imposed restrictio n s on their ability to obtain better employment at higher wages. I t was argued that if the administration merely wanted to improve living conditions, it could have built new houses in the old location. The authorities' counter-argument that the location was too small to accommodate expan sion was rejected. It was conceded that some white land might have to be expropriated, but this was referable to moving a whole community. However, ev - if there had been no more room for expansion, further land could have :.-vn made available in other parts of the town without having to remove the ?xisting township, The authorities' argument that Katutura would be located closer to the town's industrial area was resented because it showed that blacks were "regarded as inanimate assets for future industrial expansion, to be moved without th eir consent whenever and wherever they are needed". Those who opposed the move argued that the real reason for the removal was that white housing had been b u ilt up to the borders of the township and that the old location therefore stood in the way of further white expansion, Because of the apartheid policy, the authorities regarded it as undesirable for whites and blacks to live close to one another. The South African Minister of Native Affairs had stated in the Senate in 1956 that rationalization of his government's segregation policies de manded that there be a buffer strip of at least 500 yards between a black location and the settlement of any other racial group, In order to satisfy this demand, "Incorrectly situated" locations would have to be removed and replaced with "correctly situated" locations. The removal was a further cause of insecurity among blacks because it was always the blacks who were forced to move for the convenience of whites, Should further expansion occur in Windhoek, blacks might be forced to move once again. The move to Katuttira would also impose additional financial costs on the already impoverished residents of the location. Firstly , i t would entail an increase of rental from 3/6d to approximately 20/-, that is raising housing costs more than five times what they were in the old location. Furthermore. Katutura was about six kms from the centre of town. This would net only entail additional transport costs to work, but also put further difficulties in the way of blacks wanting to use the shopping and o her fa c ilitie s in the town of Windhoek, As with other !'i . : removals, underlying the reluctance to move was an attachment to t:-'. .ting settlement, a realization that the community could not be !■ . '’need elsewhere, particularly not under the circum stances envisag-d lor Katutura by the authorities: It was as if the very hardship of life in the Old Location created a great family in which each member looked out for every other. In spite of the hardship, there was a strange contentment with Old Location life; in the midst of so much noise, serenity,JJ4 The very disorder of the old township provided a degree of security against interference by the authorities. For example, people without passes could find refuge there because it was impossible for an outsider to locate anyone without asking: The must precious aspect of Old Location life was the lack of government presence.