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The Klipspruit Native Location is Proclaimed
In 1905, a native location called Klipspruit on the margins of Johannesburg was declared. People who were moved to Klipspruit were from the “coolietowns”. Approximately 600 Indians were relocated elsewhere and 1-358 black people were relocated to Klipspruit. Even though government claimed that the removal was to improve the squalid conditions of slum dwellers, Klipspruit was not better than the shantytowns they were leaving behind. It was located about 300 meters from the City Council sewerage. The housing was a V shaped shack without foundations
A picture of houses in Klipspruit.
Source: Kallaway, P. and Pearson, P. (1986). Johannesburg, Images and Continuities: A History of Working Class Life Through Pictures . Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Moving to Klipspruit made life even more intricate. First, to maintain a ‘respectable' distance between whites and blacks, it was far from the city centre were most people worked, a distance of thirteen kilometers. Secondly, because of the long distance to the city center, workers had to commute to work and home. This meant that they would have had to pay their transport fare each day in addition to their other expenditures. Furthermore, Klipspruit ensured a desired tight control of black people in urban areas.
The AmaWasha, a group referred to earlier, was severely affected by this forced removal. Washing clothes constituted an alternative source of income for blacks, more specifically Zulus, who established themselves in Braamfontein as washers. Because Johannesburg lacked a drainage system, the Sanitation Board feared that washing clothes in residential areas could become a health hazard. It, therefore, banned washing within residential areas and confined washing to few available streams in Braamfontein. The removal of the AmaWasha to Klipspruit cut them off from their source of income. During this period the relocation of blacks was still in its early stages.
In 1914, Alexandra, located beyond municipal boundaries, was proclaimed and black people were allowed to buy freehold land. These early developments of Township settlement for black people should be followed within another context of labour competition in South Africa. In the countryside, most farmers were complaining about the loss of labour as a consequence of an influx of black people to Johannesburg. The government was intent on maintaining a constant labour supply to farmers without affecting labour demands in the mining industry. The creation of townships was to keep a steady labour force in urban areas for the mining industry, and to control the influx of black people.
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Mpanza |
Ongoing project: Last updated October 2007
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