With Nelson Mandela International Day (July 18) honoured this week, the theme for this year (‘It’s still in our hands to combat poverty and inequity’) sharpens the mind as to the origins of the continuing economic inequity experienced in our city. With this in mind, Klerksdorp Museum historian, Bert Gaffen, tells the story of Makweteng, Klerksdorp’s first township for Black people.
Klerksdorp Record, Klerksdorp - The origins of economic inequity lie not only in the formal Policy of Apartheid perpetrated by the National Party between 1948 and 1994, but also in the racial policies of, in turn, the two pre-20th Century British Crown Colonies (Cape Colony and Natal Colony) and the contemporary Boer Republics (ZAR and Orange Free State), the British Colonial Government immediately post Anglo Boer War, and the Union of South Africa (as of 1910). It is against this background that the story of Klerksdorp’s first Black township, Makweteng, should be read.
Firstly, a short background to the origins of Makweteng. Although the Museum is not in possession of definite documentation regarding this topic, taking into consideration the status quo regarding Black populations in the Pre-Anglo Boer War ZAR, by the outbreak of the War in 1899 there would have been an informal Black settlement present on the outskirts of the Whites-only town of Klerksdorp.
By the time the guerrilla phase of the War got under way, the British had taken the decision to establish concentration camps in which Boer women and children were incarcerated. A less well-known fact is that the British Army doled out the same treatment to African communities. Klerksdorp had two separate concentration camps during the War, one exclusively for White inmates and the other one exclusively for Blacks.
The Black camp was more or less where modern-day Ellaton and Neserhof are situated. Although there is no direct evidence that this was indeed the case with Klerksdorp’s camp, it was generally the case that when the British decided to create Black concentration camps, they just converted pre-existing townships on the outskirts of White towns into camps. It can thus reasonably be presumed that the site of Klerksdorp’s camp was indeed where the pre-War township had been.
By all accounts, the conditions in especially the Black concentration camp were atrocious. According even to British wartime records, the provisioning of food to Black camps was far from adequate, almost no medical care was available to the internees and they also did not receive any coal from the authorities to cook with or keep themselves warm during winter. Even housing were inadequate, ranging from discarded and leaking British army tents to lean-to structures erected with whatever materials were at hand. From the few photographs available of Klerksdorp’s White camp, this situation seems to have been true for this camp too.
Gradually, internees in the Black camp tried to better their lives even while being kept in the camp against their will. Some people built traditional mud houses, others made building bricks from soil while some even started planting crops within the confinements of the camp to supplement their meagre rations.
At War’s end, many camp inmates felt that they had nowhere else to go and requested permission to remain living in what was (pre-War) their township and for the second half of the war, their place of incarceration. Racial segregation policies were continued by first, the British colonial authorities and then post-1910, by the new Union of South Africa government. Many people remained living in the structures they had built during the War, while new houses continued to be built, often using soil bricks. Hence, the people living there started calling it Makweteng, referring to the building material used for many of these houses.
Gradually, people in Makweteng started rebuilding their lives. Makweteng actually developed into what could perhaps be described as a mini version of Cape Town’s District Six, as the population of the township grew multi-racial through the years. But Government’s racial laws had an ever-greater impact on people’s lives. First the Land Act of 1913 and then the Native Urban Areas Act of 1923 formalised the establishment of separate Black townships (the so-
called ‘locations’) and prohibited Black persons from owning property except in government designated reserves. Henceforth the vast majority of Klerksdorp’s Black population was forced to live in Makweteng.
In 1948, the NP won the National Elections and immediately started working towards implementing the formal government policy of Apartheid. In 1950, the notorious Group Areas Act was passed. This new law established government control over interracial property transactions and property occupation throughout South Africa. Henceforth, the law stated, racially intermixed populations would no longer be tolerated.
Therefore, it was clear that Makweteng with its vibrant community of Black, Coloured and South African Indian people would not long be tolerated by the Apartheid state.
In 1949, the NP dominated Klerksdorp City Council formally opened a new Black township - Jouberton - on the outskirts of Klerksdorp. At first, people from Makweteng were encouraged to voluntarily relocate. Although some families did decide to make the move to Jouberton, many families felt that their ancestors had rebuilt their very lives in Makweteng on the suffering experienced in the concentration camp in the War years.
They therefore resisted all attempts of City Council to entice them into moving to Jouberton. Then, finally, in 1952, using the Group Areas Act as the legal base for their actions, City Council issued a Final Eviction Order to the inhabitants of Makweteng. All Black residents were forced to relocate to Jouberton, while Indians had to relocate to Sakarol (modern-day Manzil Park) and Coloured people were forced to take up residence in Alabama.
Soon, it became clear why Klerksdorp City Council was so diligent in evicting Makweteng’s residents and demolishing all of its structures. Where Makweteng had been, had been earmarked for development of two new Whites-only neighbourhoods, namely Ellaton and Neserhof.
This forced removal led to the uprooting of many people’s lives. Many people had to try and fit all their worldly belongings, accrued over a lifetime, into a Jouberton house often much smaller than the house they once owned in Makweteng.
In interviews with some former residents conducted by the Klerksdorp Museum, people speak of the trauma they experienced in witnessing the bulldozers moving in and demolishing their houses once the period of grace allowed by the Final Eviction Order dated September 19 1952 expired.
* For more information on this and other exhibitions, as well as information regarding the history of our City and its people, contact the Klerksdorp Museum at 018 487 8900 or send email to
