Brakpan 100: The building of a town

Buildings were already being erected in the area, long before the town of Brakpan was born.

Soon after the end of the Anglo-Boer War, the owner of Apex Colliery began to erect a permanent building for their offices and homes for employees.

When Brakpan Mines was established in 1906, building operations also commenced and workshops, offices and homes were constructed.

Some of the building which were taken over were part of the original farm buildings situated about 200m south of Victoria Falls Road.

These were called the “Dutch Quarters”.

In a letter, a resident described them as “mud-brick, unplastered rooms”.

When Brakpan Mines started to erect a compound for employees, the Levy family was quick to realise the business potential of the area.

A concession store was erected in the Apex dip and trading was carried on there for many years.

Not long after the store was built in 1912, the township of Brakpan, as part of Benoni, was proclaimed.

Buildings were erected and the first person to submit plans to build a house in the new township was a Mr HT Elliot.

This was on the corner of Derby Avenue and Gordon Street.

The Brakpan Red Cross/Eventide Old Age Home is now on that site.

A wood and iron building was erected on the corner of Kingsway Avenue and Prince George Avenue and from here Elliot started selling stands.

Elliot had built offices in Voortrekker Road, adjacent to the future Standard Bank (now closed).

He hired out part of these offices to the Standard Bank, which established an agency there in 1913.

The year 1912 was an important one for Brakpan, with the first four shops being erected on the corner of High Street and Voortrekker Road.

Another block of shops was constructed in Prince George Avenue, between Victoria and Kitzinger avenues.

The first wood and iron house was built by a Mr W Kimble, on the corner of High Street and Hastings Avenue, and the first bakery on the corner of Kingsway Avenue and Bedford Street.

A building which was to become a landmark in the town for many years – Maskells Hotel – was started in 1912.

This was on the corner opposite the Standard Bank.

Building continued at a steady rate over the years.

• Dalview

Apex Mines, who owned the ground west of End Street, started planning a new township in the area in 1933.

They intended to call it New Clarendon (the Governor-General was the Earl of Clarendon), but for some reason or other his name was not adopted and it became Dalview.

It should be noted that Van Der Walt Road was already there before the township was even considered.

The road takes its name from former mayor Clr van der Walt, who was principal of the Rand Collieries School.

There is no clarity on the origin of the name Dalview.

• Brenthurst

The suburb of Brenthurst was developed at the same time as Dalview and it appears that it takes its name from the home of the Oppenheimer family.

The first houses in these two areas were erected in 1936.

• Brakpan North

Also known as Sherwood Gardens, Brakpan North was initially planned by a private company who intended to call it Frik du Preez Park – in honour of the great Springbok rugby player.

All the streets were intended to be named after South African sportsmen and women, but the company went insolvent and the town council became responsible for the development of the suburb, naming it Brakpan North.

The names of streets were not changed, but none of the sportspeople who came from Brakpan were commemorated by them.

• Minnebron

In Minnebron, the council adopted a policy of naming streets after councillors and municipal officials whose names had not been used previously.

• Tsakane

Tsakane was built in 1957 and was to replace the Brakpan Location.

The remaining farm community of Brakpan smallholdings was herded into the township and all informal settlements in the East Rand were accommodated in Tsakane in the 1980s.

Brakpan Location residents resisted against forceful removals to the area in the 1950s and civil disobedience was rampant among the location’s youth.

New tenants from Springs and other communities flocked into the location after the KwaThema township resettlement in the 1950s.

The location’s basic services of latrine removals, rubbish collection, communal taps, and the increased density of shacks choked all systems to total collapse.

The area became a health hazard and unsafe environment for the locals.

The process of relocation to Tsakane became voluntary, and resistance waned over time.

From 1977, the government moved people from the Brakpan Location to Tsakane until 1987.

Municipality rental houses and public-private houses were provided with basic services and infrastructure.

Informal settlements were restituted in Tsakane, and the entire Brakpan Location was razed to the ground with bulldozers, levelling all that was the history and heritage of a community.

• Geluksdal

In 1972, a portion of Withok plots was declared a “coloured area”.

It was to take seven years before people could move in the new township of Geluksdal.

The area had its own management committee for years,but had little or no power and final decisions were made by the Brakpan Town Council.

Geluksdal was amalgamated with Brakpan in 1993, but four of the five members of the old committee resigned.

The Brakpan Herald values the contribution by resident Lawrence Mkhonza, from the Brakpan Museum NPC, who provided the information about Tsakane.

Other information was obtained from Selby Webster’s book The Brakpan Story.

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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Thelma Koorts  (editor) brakpanherald@caxton.co.za

or Stacy Slatter (news editor) stacys@caxton.co.za

 or Miné Fourie (journalist) minev@caxton.co.za

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