In 1994, the article below appeared in the Sandton Historical Association Annual Magazine. It provides a glimpse of primary health care in Witkoppen, now an outlying area of Johannesburg but previously part of Sandton. The author, Dr Margaret Fouche, one of the doctors who worked at the clinic, allowed the Association to use the material for the article from her longer and more detailed history of the clinic.
Together with the article by Agnes Kulenkampff on Witkoppen School, published in the Association’s Magazine of 1978, and reproduced on the Heritage Portal (click here to read), readers will gain a sense of the deleterious conditions of life for Africans in our region in past decades, but also of the strength of volunteer assistance and contributions.
The early years
The Witkoppen Clinic has been in operation for nearly fifty years, and it seems appropriate to write an account of it while some of the original workers can help with their recollections. Since the Witkoppen School and the Clinic have always been connected, and since the School preceded the founding of the Clinic a brief account of the school's beginning is given here.
Sketch of the Witkoppen School buildings (via the Annual Magazine of the Sandton Historical Association)
The Witkoppen School began in 1942 when Mr...
