Roodepoort

While exploring the Witwatersrand in 1884, Fred Struben discovered what he considered was a payable series of gold bearing reefs. The first promising area was north of Krugersdorp, near the present Sterkfontein Hospital. Mining was begun in co-operation with his brother Harry, and with two partners they formed the Sterkfontein Junction Mining Syndicate.

However, the gold, plentiful on and near the surface, pinched out at about 15 meters. The mine was abandoned.

Searching further to the East, Fred again found a good deposit on Wilgespruit, a farm then owned by Louw Geldenhuys.

Mining began on a koppie on the South East side of the farm. In his diary, Fred Struben wrote that he was finding a grain of gold for every grain of sand. His big brother, Harry, ever the poet and businessman, named it the Confidence Reef Mine.

Fred and Harry Struben at the Confidence Reef Mine (HF Gros)

Mining continued by the Strubens and a couple of hardy Zulus until 1888, when the Strubens let the mine out (possibly to a French Nobleman named Count Jacques De Waru.) and retired to Cape town.

Sporadic mining continued at the Confidence Reef, mostly by a man from Roodepoort, George Brown. Brown also began mining further south and maps as...

“The cemetery is the ghost of Roodepoort West. It is the last vision of the vibrant African location that once stood where the suburban houses now stand. Like a ghost, the cemetery continues to haunt the people, now living miles away in Dobsonville, who remember its past." - Michelle Hay. 

This paper explores the layered meanings attached to Juliwe Cemetery, and efforts to recognise the significance of the site. As the only piece of the old Roodepoort West Location to be spared demolition, the cemetery became a centre-piece of a story of forced removals which for over 50 years remained unknown to the wider public, and which has only recently  begun to be acknowledged in the public sphere.

When the rest of the old African location of Roodepoort West was destroyed from 1956-1967, the cemetery remained after threats of protest caused by its proposed destruction of the graves persuaded the authorities to leave it alone. With the rest of the location having been erased and covered over by a whites-only township, the cemetery remains as evidence of a community which was made to move to Dobsonville.

At a Heritage Month event hosted by the City of Johannesburg in 2017, ex-residents returned to the old location cemetery which is all that remains of Roodepoort West Township, called Juliwe by its people. In an emotional ceremony, a memorial was inaugurated to acknowledge and interpret this black cemetery, now surrounded on all sides by the suburb of Horizon View.

Near the edge of the cemetery, a blue heritage...

Below are notes prepared by the heritage team from the City of Johannesburg for a speech delivered at the unveiling ceremony of a blue plaque for Juliwe Cemetery during Heritage Month 2017. The speech was read out by Mr Kepi Madumo, Executive Director for Community Development, on behalf of the MMC. The notes tell the story of the forced removals of the African community from Roodepoort West to Dobsonville and the fight to save the cemetery from destruction. Click here to download a detailed history of the Roodepoort-Maraisburg Location, compiled by a team from the Wits History Workshop led by the late Prof Phil Bonner.

MMC: Community Development, Clr. Nonhlanhla Sifumba, officiating at the plaque unveiling ceremony (City of Johannesburg)

Today as we mark heritage month, we take the opportunity to recognize a community who were not only evicted from their homes in Roodepoort West, but also forced to leave behind the graves of their loved ones.  

The destruction of such communities as Sophiatown and District Six have become well-known, and these names have become by-words for mass eviction.  And we are honoured today to have members of the legendary Sophiatown community joining us in solidarity today. 

Yet around the country, many other victims of forced removal have been largely...