Neil Fraser
April 7, 2003
"WHEREAS by Proclamation No. 110 dated 24 May 1963, the area defined in paragraph (a) of the Annexure thereto was declared an area for occupation by members of the White group; and whereas you are occupying the land or premises described as Stand...Pageview, Johannesburg, which land or premises are situated in the said area; and whereas you are not a member of the White group and are therefore a disqualified person in respect of the said area; you are hereby notified, in terms of Section 20 (1) bis (b) of the Group Areas Act, 1957 (Act No.77 of 1957) that the Acting Regional Under-Secretary, Department of Community Development, Johannesburg, by virtue of a delegation of the Minister of Community Development, has determined that the provisions of Section 23 of the said Act shall apply in respect of the said land or premises occupied for residential purposes with effect from 1st November, 1966, and that you, together with all disqualified persons occupying with your permission are required to vacate the said land or premises prior to the said date".
Some of those "disqualified" persons who received this notification, had lived in their homes and traded in their shops in Fietas together with their "disqualified" families for three decades!
The axe had fallen following years of uncertainty.
The Star of 22 May 1953 recorded that "the City Council's General Purposes Committee proposed that the whole of Burghersdorp, except the area west of Crown Road, which should remain a buffer zone for light industry, should be set aside for Indians. In addition, the committee proposed that part of Fordsburg and Newtown should be given to the Indian community, along with the township of Lenz to the south-west of the municipal boundary."
That statement had evidently come after much debate in the Council regarding the future of the Indian community in Johannesburg. The majority political party at the time, the United Party, were divided mainly as to the future of those Indians who lived and traded in Fietas and Diagonal Street whilst the minority Nationalist Party insisted that all Indians be moved to Lenz.
A 1967 publication of the South African Institute of Race Relations by Peter Randall and Yunus Desai records the following in regard to the attitude of the Indian community itself: "The Indian community was divided, this time about the tactics of the Transvaal Indian Congress, some feeling that total resistance to the policy of segregation was unrealistic and that possibilities such as acquiring Diepkloof should be explored. The Congress refused, however, to relax its commitment to total rejection of Group Areas and any slight possibility that the Indians might negotiate for another area nearer the city than Lenasia was lost. The later banning of the Congress Movement silenced the vocal opposition of the Indian community, and ushered in a period, still existing (i.e. 1967), when most Indians became afraid to criticise and protest openly at what was being done to them under the Group Areas Act."
A short reprieve developed for those whose shops and homes were a combined establishment as alternative trading sites had to be provided before they could be moved. In September 1965 the Johannesburg office of Dunlop, Heywood & Co., Chartered Valuation Surveyors issued a report on a "Proposed Indian Commercial Centre, Fordsburg - Johannesburg".
The Report was prefaced as follows: "Our instructions were to prepare a scheme together with a Financial Appraisal for the erection of an Indian commercial Centre in Fordsburg, on a site of 20 acres which the Johannesburg Municipality and the Department of Community Development wish to inaugurate to provide alternative accommodation for Indian traders and businessmen who will be displaced from the Central business district and various townships within the city limits under the Group Areas Act. We were requested to design the scheme in such a way as to have a distinctive oriental character in anticipation that this would create not only a commercial and shopping centre but would also be a tourist attraction."
In discussing the shopping 'experience' offered in Fietas, the Report suggests that its popularity amongst 'Europeans' was due to the concentration of a large number of shops in a small area specialising in clothing and textiles; the opportunity to 'bargain'; the opportunity to buy branded goods at "prices which are flexible and undoubtedly cheaper"; the atmosphere of a bazaar; the quality of personal attention; the ease of parking (which was also free) and the virtual absence of fast moving motor traffic.
"On the other hand" the Report continues, " there is an undoubted feeling amongst some middle class Europeans that to be seen shopping in the area is somehow socially undesirable. The general air of dilapidation of the whole district also deters many Europeans from regular shopping visits."
And then the punch line: "These drawbacks to Pageview should disappear when a new and attractive centre is built with the result that a substantial increase in trade could well be achieved."
The cost estimate was R9 million odd of which land would cost R1 million and construction R6.5 million. With shops let at 25 cents per sq ft per month, offices at 12.5 cents and trading stands ranging from R40 to R60 per month the return was estimated at 7.25%.
The Report concluded; "We believe that this scheme will be of tremendous benefit to the City of Johannesburg and to the country as a whole, both as a viable commercial centre and a great tourist attraction."
The Oriental Plaza was established in 1974 and the forced removals of shop-owners from Fietas followed. Nazir Carrim in his book "Fietas" records that the Plaza was dubbed the "White Elephant" by the shop-owner from Pageview/Fietas. He explains that the "White" captured the "white" supremacist nature of Apartheid and the fact that the Oriental Plaza was a result of the machinations of the "white" rulers of Apartheid.
The "Elephant" reflected the deliberate attempt by the Apartheid Government to promote the "Indianness" of the Pageview people "in order to materialise the logic of apartheid which subjectified the traders of Pageview in the context of being " Indian". Together, the words 'White Elephant' also illustrated the fraudulent nature of the Oriental Plaza scheme.
"It was an hoax, and pulling the wool over the eyes of the rest of South Africa and the rest of the world. In this regard the "White Elephant" was conceived as a showpiece of Apartheid, akin to the glorified paintings that adorned the Nazi concentration camps to disguise its actual effect and purpose."
Media reports of those times chronicled the relentless downward spiral exerted by Government with headlines such as "Indian traders resist move" and "Indian traders defy Govt" to "Pageview Indians now face eviction" and finally "Fists fly at Vrededorp row - dogs out as traders, officials fight."
An interview with Mr Y Patel sums up the final indignities; "What was really bad and degrading was the way people were moved out. There were dogs and police there. They just threw all the goods onto the streets and people were pushed around like animals."
The traders sued the Council and Government for compensation for goods damaged. They were offered seven months of additional trading in Fietas until after Christmas if they dropped the damages claims.
The traders agreed and in 1977 the security forces and dogs were back and the same ruthless performance of evictions was repeated. The traders reluctantly moved to the Oriental Plaza, as Nazir Carrim poignantly describes "brutalised, demoralised, angry, helpless, homeless and dispossessed."
