Neil Fraser
October 10, 2003
LAST Thursday witnessed the unveiling by the Executive Mayor, Amos Masondo, of a statue to Mohandas K Gandhi. The statue has appropriately been erected in Gandhi Square and the sculptress, Tinka Christopher, has caught the spirit of the Mahatma as a youthful lawyer clad in legal gown and holding a law book just as he undoubtedly would have often been seen in the Law Courts on Government Square.
The Law Courts, sadly, were demolished many years back when Government Square became Van der Byl Square - now Gandhi Square.
The unveiling ceremony was most impressive and excellently organised by Eric Itzkin, Deputy Director of the City's Immovable Heritage and author of the book 'Gandhi's Johannesburg'. The following are a few of the incidents that Gandhi experienced during the period that he lived and worked in Johannesburg.
When he initially arrived in Johannesburg he was in his early twenties "shy and lacking in confidence" and with an undistinguished academic record and a disappointing legal career behind him. He tried to get accommodation at the Grand National Hotel which is today where Edgars City has been built on the corner of Rissik and Pritchard Streets. He recorded, "I saw the Manager and asked for a room, he eyed me for a moment, and politely saying 'I am very sorry, we are full up', bade me goodbye."
This was not to be Gandhi's only hotel related problem in Johannesburg. A luxurious three-storey hotel carrying the name of its owner, William Heath, was erected in Pritchard Street in the early 1890s. The site later became the Eloff Street Branch of the OK Bazaars.
The dining room of Heath's Hotel was on the ground floor and was evidently particularly grand with a "lofty, elegantly arranged banqueting hall capable of accommodating a large number of guests". At some stage Gandhi required accommodation for a short period and a Lewis Rich approached William Heath on his behalf.
He records "Heath was a kindly soul, but also a licensed hotel-keeper whose patrons were rather superior people and more than likely to resent the presence of Indians as fellow guests. Poor Heath was torn between a desire to accommodate and his dread of repercussions. Eventually we arrived at a compromise. If Mr Gandhi would take his meals in a lobby instead of in the public dining room, the difficulty might be overcome. With characteristic consideration for his host's dilemma Gandhi agreed, he and I dined together and the superior people were spared the indignity of our company."
A prominent American suffragette, Mrs Carrie Chapman Catt, asked Gandhi to meet her initially at her hotel but, as no Indians were permitted to enter hotels to visit guests, she made arrangements to meet him in an office in Permanent Buildings now known as Victory House, it still exists on the corner of Harrison and Commissioner Streets.
The building is thought to be the first to have been served successfully by a lift, which was installed in 1898. The caretaker-cum-lift operator was an ex-policeman named Hallet who refused to allow Gandhi to use the lift, it only conveyed 'Europeans', Gandhi could use the stairs. Gandhi demurred and the meeting was held in his offices.
His offices were in Court Chambers, 15 Rissik Street between Anderson and Marshall Streets and he lived in a rented room behind the offices until 1904 when he moved to a family home in Troyeville with his wife and children. His offices became the headquarters of the Transvaal British Indian Association and the centre of anti-government agitation.
The Law Courts - The Witwatersrand High Court and Magistrates Courts - were located in Gandhi's time on Government Square, subsequently van der Byl now Gandhi Square. The land and original building was actually owned and built by the Goldfields Club as a place where the mine managers could relax. However, before the building was completed it was bought by the Government in 1893 and converted into a courthouse.
It fulfilled this function until 1911 and was demolished in 1948. It was here that Gandhi appeared in two roles. The first in defence of those arrested for failing to register for passes, picketing and other political offences. The second as defendant, in December 1907 for refusing to register under the Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act.
He was found guilty and ordered to leave the Transvaal within 48 hours. He didn't and was re-arrested in January 1908. He asked for the maximum sentence, six months hard labour and a five hundred pound fine but the magistrate sentenced him to two months imprisonment that were spent in the Fort. This was to be the first of four terms of imprisonment in South Africa for Gandhi, twice in 1908, once in 1909 and once in 1913.
The first sentence was served at the Fort but Gandhi only served one of the two months he had been sentenced to - he was released early on instructions from General Smuts. He then spent some time back in the Fort in October 1908. Two cell blocks for white prisoners had been erected in 1893 when the city was only seven years old.
Then Section 4 was built which was a block for black prisoners and called the 'Native Prison'. This was where Gandhi was incarcerated. Before the turn of the century the ramparts were built which led to the complex being called The Fort although it was used exclusively as a prison from 1902 to its closure in 1982. The 'Native Prison' was continually overcrowded its thirteen cells each designed to accommodate up to forty prisoners but bty 1906 accommodating over seventy. Gandhi recorded that the prisoners experienced 'acute inconvenience' in the cramped and overcrowded facilities
I've just picked out these few anecdotes of Gandhi's interaction with the city, Eric Itzkin gives many, many more and I can recommend his book 'Gandhi's Johannesburg' for enjoyable and interesting reading. It is published by Witwatersrand University Press in association with MuseumAfrica.
Philip Yancey, the Christian writer, described Gandhi as follows, "There has been no one like him: no one more disciplined or stubborn or inconsistent or creative or baffling or loveable or infuriating. Many of the political principles we take for granted today originated in the mind of this man who led a fifth of humanity to independence. He broke every rule in the political manual, and in the process helped found the largest democracy in the history of the world."
One of my favourite quotes ascribed to Gandhi was when he was asked what he thought of Western civilization - he answered "I think it would be a great idea."
Whilst writing this I am reminded of the AGM of the National Home Loan Guarantee Company that I attended last week.
Keynote speaker, Judge Goldstone, in an address outstanding for its insightfulness regarding international law (or lawlessness) made a comment to the effect that our country has been incredibly sick for well over 300 years, yet the world expected that it be normalised just in ten! Just how sick we were is so clearly illustrated in these stories about the stay in Johannesburg of one of the truly great men in recent history.
