Johannesburg

The township of Parkmore was established in 1904 – making it one of the oldest northern suburbs in the Johannesburg Metro. Parkmore was proclaimed in the aftermath of the South African War (1899-1902). The ending of hostilities brought with it the expectation of economic stability and a rise in property prices in what had become the British colony of the Transvaal.

Sketch plan showing position of Parkmore

The area that once comprised the independent town of Sandton, north of Johannesburg, originally consisted of four large farms that settling Voortrekkers had taken up, displacing the African communities that had used the area for many centuries before them. One of these was Zandfontein (No. 1, later No. 42 IR), part of which was to become Parkmore. The whole farm had been owned by Jan Christoffel Esterhuysen who, in the late 1840s, had arrived from Natal with his large family. After Britain had annexed Natal in 1843, he and others found themselves under the same uncongenial British rule from which they had intended to escape in the Cape Colony and so they trekked again.

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This article is about William English, (1875-1915), a miner originally from the North-East of England who through hard work became a mining engineer in the gold mines of South Africa. It is based on the website williamenglish.net which includes his journal, poems and additional commentary. Creating the website has been a project for William’s descendants, Hilary Norris and Larry Cunningham.

William was born in Wylam in 1875. If the movement around the pits of the north east which his grandparents, parents and then William himself made during the eighty years from 1815 to 1895 are plotted on relevant maps, it can be seen that the family moved from Wylam and Tow Law in the west, to Whitburn and Blyth in the east; from Coundon in the south to Amble in the north. In other words, they traversed almost the whole of the northern coalfield! William’s family can truly claim to be Northumberland and Durham miners.

He found his own first job as a trapper when he left school at thirteen but after a week: ‘I didn’t like the mine, and wanted to leave, but my father said I had looked for the job myself and would now stay there.  Well, that fixed my destiny, but I know I should never have been a miner.’

William later followed in his father Henry’s footsteps and found work in the mines of South Africa. When he arrived in 1897, the original shanty town of some 3000 people that had sprung up around Ferreira’s...

Just prior to the outbreak of the Boer War, the small mining and railway village of Hattingspruit, only a few kilometres north of Dundee, grabbed some reflected limelight. This was due to the incredible physical exertion of 7 000 Zulu workers who walked from the Witwatersrand Goldfields back to their homes in Zululand.

The logistics of this march were organised by John Sydney Marwick. At 24 years old he was a fluent Zulu linguist, and the Johannesburg Agent for the Natal Native Agency, responsible for the recruitment and personal affairs of several thousand Zulu workers employed on the mines. His Zulu nickname was “Muhle”.

John Sydney Marwick

The discovery of diamonds and gold and the subsequent mining operations had revolutionised the country. There were far reaching changes in the social, political and economic life of the country and its inhabitants. A cheap and constant supply of labour was needed and by 1899 100 000 Africans were employed on the gold mines.

Once it was clear that war was going to break out and that the closure of the gold mines was imminent, the question arose as to what would happen to the mine workers Many of the mines shut down and 78 000 workers sought refuge outside the Transvaal.

According to Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War:

In terms of...

The South African Constitution of 1996 introduced new forms of local government and radically changed the map of governance structures throughout the country. As has been the case since 1910, the central and provincial governments play a controlling role. However, at a local level – towns, cities and even townships and suburbs – remain arenas in which citizens are empowered to make their voices heard directly, as happens almost daily with street protests about inadequate service delivery. Local autonomy and responsibility have been crucial to popular expression, and, in this regard, it is salutary to recall the emergence of Randburg and Sandton as independent towns in 1959 and 1969 respectively.

Peri-Urban Settlements in the Johannesburg Region

The area to the north of Johannesburg had been settled mainly during the 1920s and 1930s, when, as a consequence of drought, economic depression, and industrialisation, people fled the impoverished countryside hoping for employment and a better life in urban areas – many referred to it as the ‘Second Great Trek’. As remains the situation in our era, many newcomers settled on the periphery of towns, often living under insanitary conditions without services such as roads, electricity, health services, water, and sanitation.

In the 1930s Johannesburg was the city most impacted by the enormous increase in population and in 1936 appointed a commission under Richard Feetham (1874-1965), once a member of Lord Milner’s ‘Kindergarten’ after the South African War with responsibility for Johannesburg, by the 1930s a prominent judge and chairman of numerous high-profile...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie describes one of Joburg's hidden gems, the camera obscura at Museum Africa. She also delves into the significance of the Bensusan Collection held by the museum. The piece was first published on the City of Joburg's website on the 14 February 2006. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

Did you know that there’s a periscope on the top of the Museum Africa building, looking down on the goings-on of Newtown?

Well, actually, it’s a camera obscura which operates much like a periscope. It gives the viewer a 360º view of what’s happening outside the building. It was built on the top floor of the Bensusan Museum of Photography in around 2001, as a Blue IQ project, costing roughly R200 000. It was custom built for the museum – there are only five others in the country. 

Inside the building the image is projected on to a large round table, and a metre or so above the table is a ring that moves, moving the mechanism that holds the mirror on the roof. As the ring moves so does the image on the table.

The Camera Obscura (Mark Straw)

These periscope mechanisms were first recorded in Chinese writings from around 500BC, says Jonathan Frost, curator of the museum, housed...

Rosendal is a townhouse complex in the heart of Rosebank, designed by the Johannesburg architect, Michael Sutton, in 1988. With only 16 units in two rows of semi-detached double storey houses, the complex is quintessentially understated. It nonetheless represents a significant contribution to the architectural heritage of Johannesburg, being both a refined example of Sutton’s townhouse typology, and also an elegant synthesis of a South African style and postmodernism.

The street façade is unassuming - a simple, white-bagged plastered wall. The staff quarters, above the garages, sit a few meters back from the street boundary and span the main entrance to the complex, creating a simple Porte cochere. The street facing windows in this building are deeply recessed, providing privacy for residents and emulating the thick walls of early Cape Dutch farm houses.

Beyond the entrance is a car courtyard lined with garages and more pergolas covered in creepers, again mimicking the vine-covered structures of Cape wine farms. Leading from the courtyard are a pair of passages that provide access to the two parallel rows of semi-detached double storey houses, which run east to west down the slope of the ridge and perpendicular to Bath Avenue. The units have identical gabled roofs, but this repetition is offset by variations in the placement and size of the upper storey windows. The entrance to the north passage is marked by a corbelled brick doorway which is visible from the gate, but the path doglegs afterwards, offering seclusion from the street. Along this...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie reveals the story of Dee Mashinini and his family's painful experiences in the aftermath of the June 16th uprisings. The piece was first published on the City of Joburg's website on the 22 May 2007. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

Life in exile for the teenagers who survived 16 June 1976 was hard. Some left their homes at 15, adrift in a strange country and without emotional support.

This was true for people like Dee Mashinini, the younger brother of Tsietsi, a student leader who died in Guinea in 1990 - the year most exiles started coming home.

Dee Mashinini (Lucille Davie)

"Many of us were young. I can't forget faces of youngsters crying, wanting to come back home just six months after they left. It was not easy; we cried and consoled each other, we tried to be strong, we grew; and then it was 15 years since we left," he says.

Mashinini spent 13 years in exile, returning at the age of 28. Sixteen years later he's settled in a job as a marketing manager, obtained with the aid of the senior diploma in journalism and mass communications he obtained while in exile.

Mashinini is one of 13 of Nomkhitha Mashinini's children. Three of his brothers, Elvis, Ronald and Tshepiso, died in the 1990s...

In this article from the archive, journalist Lucille Davie reports on the planning and construction of the Hector Pieterson Museum. The piece was first published on the City of Joburg's website on 24 October 2001. She also investigates what happened to various key 'June 16' personalities. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

"I saw a child fall down. Under a shower of bullets I rushed forward and went for the picture. It had been a peaceful march, the children were told to disperse, they started singing Nkosi Sikelele. The police were ordered to shoot."

These are the words of Sam Nzima, recalling the events of June 16, 1976 in Soweto. Hector Pieterson, a young boy, was shot. He was picked up by Mbuyisa Makhubo, who, together with Hector's sister, Antoinette, ran towards a press car, where he was bundled in, and taken to a nearby clinic, where he was pronounced dead. The moment has been preserved in Nzima's now-legendary photograph.

Iconic shot by Sam Nzima

"I was the only photographer there at the time. Other photographers came when they heard shots," he says. Nzima was a photographer for The World newspaper in Johannesburg, which was banned and closed down only a few months later.

Now those events are to be...

It is with regret that I inform the heritage community of Johannesburg that a special Robert Howden house has been demolished. No application for demolition was received by the Joint Plans Committee East of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and it would appear that an application for demolition was neither received nor approved by the Provincial Heritage Resources Agency of Gauteng (PHRAG).

I mourn the loss of this lovely heritage home. It happened in a flash with a new owner choosing demolition ahead of preservation. Bulldozers have flattened all. Lorry tracks form ridges on the friable red earth. At the rear of the property, the original double garage and the staff quarters still stand; probably still useful to store building material or be a building site office or house a security guard.

The Robert Howden home has been demolished (Kathy Munro)

At the front of the property on 4th Avenue there is a front boundary wall and stylish main driveway gates. But those are not heritage features. Although in keeping with the arts and crafts style of the house, the wall and gates were erected in the last decade.

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In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie reports on the illegal demolition of structures at Brixton and Braamfontein cemeteries. The piece was first published on the City of Joburg's website on 2 June 2011. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

In mid-April 2011 two heritage buildings were illegally demolished in the city’s oldest cemeteries, Braamfontein and Brixton, resulting in a charge being laid with the police.

The two buildings, belonging to the Chevrah Kadisha, the oldest Jewish organisation in Joburg, were older than 60 years, and therefore protected under the National Heritage Resources Act of 1999.

A spokesperson for Chevrah Kadisha, who refused to be named, said: “The buildings were so badly vandalised, there was nothing left to salvage. We wanted to protect the dignity of those buried there.”

A demolition permit is required for any demolitions, but more so if the structures are older than 60 years, after which they have general heritage protection. In this case an application has to be made to the Provincial Heritage Resources Agency (PHRA). The agency has now laid a charge with the police, for the unlawful demolition of the two buildings.

Herman Bekker, owner of the demolition company, Protector Build, confirms that no demolition permit was obtained. Protector Build has been in the building industry for 22 years, and doing demolitions for the past six years. 

Bekker says he was in the process of applying for a permit, but a problem arose because the plans for the buildings could not be traced...