The following article, adapted from James Ball's 2012 masters dissertation, looks at the practical compromise made by the apartheid government and the Johannesburg City Council not to 'relocate' black communities living in Pimville in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is a bit heavy in places but a fascinating read nonetheless.
In 1904, after the outbreak of bubonic plague near present day Newtown, the African population in the area was moved to the farm Klipspruit twelve miles south west of the city. This settlement became Johannesburg’s first municipal location and in 1934 was renamed Pimville (after Howard Pim, a man who had dedicated a large part of his life to the ‘upliftment’ of Africans in Johannesburg).
A graph of plague cases (1905 Plague Report)
In the early 1950s a planning committee chaired by Mr FE Mentz responded to complaints from white residents in surrounding areas and recommended that the Potchefstroom road and railway be the dividing line between black and white (see map above and below). As Pimville fell on the ‘white’ side of this line the committee recommended its removal – a long-term project - so that ‘tensions between the races could be eliminated’.
Position of Pimville
The Johannesburg City Council appealed for the retention of Pimville as it was in the process of considering...
