GCRO OCCASIONAL PAPER # NO. 16 Johannesburg and its epidemics: Can we learn from history? NOVEMBER 2020 Author: Philip Harrison v a The GCRO comprises a partnership of: JOHANNESBURG AND ITS EPIDEMICS: CAN WE LEARN FROM HISTORY? Publishers: Gauteng City-Region Observatory Author: Philip Harrison (GCRO), a partnership of the University of Design: Breinstorm Brand Architects Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand, Page layout: Lumina Datamatics Johannesburg, the Gauteng Provincial Government Production manager: Simon Chislett and organised local government in Gauteng (SALGA). Cover image: Thapelo Morebudi/Sunday Times © November 2020 GCRO DOI: 10.36634/2020.op.2 ISBN: 978-1-990972-11-9 (XML) ISBN: 978-1-990972-12-6 (Web pdf) GCRO OCCASIONAL PAPER # NO. 16 Johannesburg and its epidemics: Can we learn from history? NOVEMBER 2020 Author: Philip Harrison GCRO OCCASIONAL PAPER #16 Contents Tables and figures .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................iii Timeline ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................iv Map of the Cape Colony, Orange Free State and the South African Republic, 1900 ...........................................................................................vi Map of the Witwatersrand, 1899 ...............................................................................................................................................................................................viii Map of Johannesburg, 1897 .........................................................................................................................................................................................................x EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 8 EARLY JOHANNESBURG ....................................................................................................................... 16 JOHANNESBURG’S EPIDEMICS AND PANDEMICS ............................................................................... 22 A prelude: The ‘Russian flu’ of 1889–90 ....................................................................................................................................................................22 First major epidemic: The smallpox outbreak of 1893 .......................................................................................................................................22 Measles epidemics in the internment camps (1901–02) ..................................................................................................................................25 Pneumonic plague of 1904 ...............................................................................................................................................................................................27 Influenza epidemic of 1918/19 .......................................................................................................................................................................................35 Polio epidemics of 1918, 1944/45 and 1948 .............................................................................................................................................................48 Scarlet fever epidemics of 1917/18, 1928, 1931, 1934 and 1941.......................................................................................................................51 ‘Minor’ epidemics ................................................................................................................................................................................................................53 HIV/Aids from the 1980s to the present ...................................................................................................................................................................55 LEARNING FROM HISTORY: SIX PERSISTING THEMES ........................................................................ 64 A final comment ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................69 About the author ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................70 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................70 JOHANNESBURG AND ITS EPIDEMICS: CAN WE LEARN FROM HISTORY? Tables and figures TABLES Table 1: Key features of Johannesburg’s epidemics ........................................................................................................................................................4 Table 2: Key themes across Johannesburg’s epidemics ................................................................................................................................................5 FIGURES Figure 1: Unemployment Insurance Fund applicants queue at the Department of Labour in Randburg ............................................3 Figure 2: The reception area of the first General Hospital on Hospital Hill in Johannesburg, early 1900s .......................................9 Figure 3: A cluster of Covid-19 cases detected among returning workers at Impala Platinum’s Marula Mine ...............................11 Figure 4: Rinderpest outbreak in South Africa, 1896 ....................................................................................................................................................13 Figure 5: Commissioner Street, Johannesburg, circa 1899 ........................................................................................................................................17 Figure 6: The streets of Hillbrow on the second day of the nationwide lockdown ...........................................................................................19 Figure 7: A ward in Johannesburg Hospital in the early 1900s .................................................................................................................................23 Figure 8: Turffontein internment camp, 1901 ...................................................................................................................................................................24 Figure 9: Turffontein internment camp, 1901. .................................................................................................................................................................26 Figure10: Mapping of plague cases in the Rand Plague Report of 1905 .................................................................................................................30 Figure 11: Headlines from the Rand Daily Mail, 1904 ...................................................................................................................................................31 Figure 12: Chart showing number of plague cases by population group, in the Rand Plague Report of 1905 .....................................33 Figure 13: Headlines from the Rand Daily Mail, 1918 ....................................................................................................................................................36 Figure 14: Headlines from the Rand Daily Mail, 1918 ....................................................................................................................................................38 Figure 15: Notice from the Town Clerk in the Potchefstroom Herald, 18 October 1918 .................................................................................39 Figure 16: Headlines from the Rand Daily Mail, 1918 ....................................................................................................................................................40 Figure 17: Notices in the Potchefstroom Herald, 15 and 18 October 1918 ..............................................................................................................43 Figure 18: Headlines from the Rand Daily Mail, 1918 ....................................................................................................................................................46 Figure 19: Johannesburg Hospital, early 1900s ...............................................................................................................................................................47 Figure 20: Postcard of the Kensington Sanitorium .......................................................................................................................................................50 Figure 21: Fever Hospital in Braamfontein ........................................................................................................................................................................52