Tracing the origins of Vosloorus on its 54th anniversary

It is the 54th anniversary of Vosloorus. Emeritus Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu’s grandmother lived there and the young Tutu used to travel by train from Randfontein to visit her during school holidays. And former State President Nelson Mandela managed to hide himself in Stirtontville township with ease while he was being pursued by the country’s apartheid security police before his arrest in the ’60s.

Yet, unlike many of the black informal residential settlements that sproutedalong the Witwatersrand corridor following the discovery of gold on the reef during the early 1800s, the land on which the first residents of Vosloorus were accommodated was donated by the government of General Smuts.

Gold and coal had just been discovered around the Boksburg area and hundreds of black, coloured and Asian migrant work from around the country and beyond had converged on the mining company’s labor compounds in Boksburg in search of work. Mining bosses desperately needed the surplus labour to mine the minerals underground, but they did not have land on which to house and keep the abundant labour workforce.

Concerned about losing the labour at their disposal, mining houses bosses appealed to the government of General Smuts to make available to them a piece of land west of the Boksburg CBD to settle and contain the growing labour force that was increasingly becoming a necessary menace with loitering outside their compounds.

According to archived records, the government conceded by declaring that all the blacks, coloureds and Asians who could not find immediate employment at the nearby mines would be accommodated in the new settlement. IsiZulu-speaking residents at the new settlement soon nicknamed it “e’Julewe”, loosely translated to mean; “jewellery” or “place of wealth”.

The new e’Julewe informal settlement was situated between two wetlands, close to the Cinderella and Hercules mine shafts, west of the Boksburg CBD. A noticeable mark to the entrance of the settlement was an Asian trading market known as Kalamazoo which was a popular meeting point for the locals and travellers .

Soon, the growing mixed community of the township of “Julewe” started building schools and churches, and one such school, the Boksburg Coloured School, also known as Die Goedehoop Primary, which first opened its doors in the township in 1905, remains the oldest school in Boksburg.

It was this diverse but united community that moulded the new township. Together they managed to turn e’Julewe into a fashionable and progressive human settlement. Working for the mines provided many of the residents with just enough financial means and benefits many jokingly associated with the settlement’s now popular nickname as a place of wealth.

Soon, as time went by, e’Julewe grew into a well-known, vibrant and sophisticated township with a sociable rating on par with, if not over, those other equally popular budding black settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, such as Pimville and Kliptown in the southeast of Johannesburg, Sophiatown, or “Kofifi” in the north and Alexandra township in the northeast. But unlike the rest, e’Juwele, was regarded as “stable” and free of the violent crimes linked to gang activity.

Then in 1911, and in honour of a local municipal superintendent, the township of e’Julewe was renamed Stirtonville, it remained a place where neighbours lived in harmony.

By around the late ’30s, professional black golfers from Stirtonville Golf Club played a number of annual tournaments against several golf clubs from as far as Randfontein, Pimville, Alexandra, Sophiatown and the Vaal. Many of these golfers were highly rated in local and national golfing circles.

As a security precaution, and to monitor unknown visitors to the settlement, residents of Stirtonville were each issued with a residential permit. This meant that anyone from outside who wanted to visit family or friends residing in the township had to obtain a temporary day-pass from the superintendent’s office in order to enter the now virtually gated residential complex.

But, not even the strict control of the “Black Jack” officers who patrolled the township’s streets could detect a few people creeping in and hiding away in the dense township. Local legend has it that one of the most iconic persons in the world, the Nobel prize-winner and former State President Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela, hid in Stirtonville while he was being pursued by the country’s former apartheid security police prior to his arrest in 1964.

Then in early 1960s, all the black residents in Stirtonville were moved to a new township on the border of Boksburg and Germiston, called Vosloorus, Meanwhile, the township’s Asian residents were relocated in Actonville, while Stirtonville was declared the sole residential area of the coloured community and in 1962 was renamed Reiger Park.

Two years later, in a bid to erase the townships’ racially mixed origins, the Boksburg Towns Council agreed to change the townships’ African street names. The local Reiger Park Stadium was built on a cemetery, mainly used for Chinese mineworkers and their remains were never removed.

Meanwhile, like a cursed child in a dysfunctional family, detached from the rest of its family and siblings, Reiger Park has developed a fearful reputation as a haven for gangsters and has been torn apart by violent gang warfare. Many of the area’s progressive young minds have relocated to other areas in search of greener and less violent pastures.

As part of the celebration of the history of Vosloorus, we request readers to participate by sharing photographs of their own memories or the of the lives of their family and friends in the old settlement of e’Julewe, Stirtonville or in the old Vosloorus.

You can email your photos with a brief summary describing what the occasion was and where the photo was taken and by whom.

E-mail to kathorusmail@lokshinmedia.co.za or to; zaidk@caxton.co.za