proper research not only to produce historical publications but also to contribute to the various heritage activities which they co-ordinate. Vincent Maumela and Reggie Mabogoane were enthusiastic partners whose determination over several years to see the ‘final product’ never wavered. Their support has been invaluable. Over the years several other people contributed in numerous ways to the collective effort. Among these were Hannelie Swart and Gwen Shole-Menyatso, who were generous with their time. Lizz Mey has acted as the primary contact between the History Workshop and the municipality for several years and has shepherded the project through many difficult moments, whilst having to negotiate two intricate bureaucracies. Her patience and dedication have been absolutely crucial in ensuring the publication of the book.
As explained in the ‘Introduction’, much of the research on which this book is based was undertaken by former and current members of the History Workshop. Nonetheless, it was evident from the start that there were major lacunae in the extant literature, which this particular project could only make a modest contribution to addressing. One serious gap that we had been aware of for some time pertained to the history of those young activists who, from the mid-1980s, joined underground structures and participated in various forms of military activities. Their relationship to the democratic dispensation had been a source of contention, so they were suspicious of researchers associated with the Metro. They had expressed for some time a deep frustration with their exclusion from official liberation histories. Sello Mathabatha, who was then employed as an oral historian at the History Workshop, spent several months interacting with groups of activists from Duduza, KwaThema and Tsakane. They eventually agreed to be interviewed, which process generated rich and novel insights into events such as the ‘Zero Hour’ incident. We are grateful that they trusted us with some of their memories. Sello Mathabatha’s skills as an oral historian again proved indispensable and produced an invaluable oral archive.
At the start of the project a team of students was mobilised to undertake archival research in various local libraries and municipal offices in Ekurhuleni, as well as Historical and Literary Papers and the National Archives, in search of official records, newspaper reports and whatever records of community organisations they could find. Faeeza Ballim and Dasantha Pillay ably led this group. The librarians, curators and administrators of museums throughout Ekurhuleni and at the University of the Witwatersrand gave access to archives, photographic collections and reports, without which it would not have been possible to write a history of the region.
Tshepo Moloi’s MA dissertation on Tembisa assisted significantly in overcoming the absence of historical material on that township and influenced our thinking on youth politics in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. Other colleagues at the university, especially Marie Huchzermeyer, Alan Mabin and David Everatt fielded question about contemporary Ekurhuleni and pointed us to the appropriate literature. Our administrators in the History Workshop and the NRF Chair on Local Histories and Present Realities – Zahn Gowar, Gugulethu Nyathikazi, Pulane Ditlhake and Sifiso Ndlovu – provided their usual exemplary support on a wide range of matters, which allowed us to focus on the research.
It was decided early on that the publication should be well-illustrated, which seemed like an eminently good idea that could easily be realised. However, we did not adequately anticipate the extreme unevenness in the existing photographic archives. Next to nothing exists on everyday life in the old location and townships. Considering the salience of mining and industry, the relative absence of photos on work is staggering. Fortunately, Sally Gaule brought her expertise to bear on the project, conducted the initial photographic research and offered invaluable advice throughout. We also benefited from discussions with Sophie Feyder and the research undertaken by Lucas Spiropoulous and Sifiso Ndlovu. Curators at the Benoni Museum and librarians from Springs, Benoni, Boksburg and Germiston were very helpful. The people who possibly suffered the most from our frantic scramble to find the ‘right’ images were Zofia Sulej and Gabriele Mohale from Historical and Literary Papers who responded to our endless requests with their usual professionalism. We were very fortunate to be introduced to the Ngilima family and Gille de Vlieg who have fantastic photographic archives on life in Benoni Old Location and aspects township struggle in the 1980s respectively.
The staff of Wits University Press was enormously helpful throughout the protracted process of converting the initial manuscript into a book. Julie Miller guided the publication through the various phases and was assisted with editing by Patricia Botes and book design by Debbie Smit. We are grateful to the two reviewers whose comments helped shape the final arguments of the book.
During the last phase of this project, two stalwarts of the region, Cassel Khanyile and Bertha Gwxoa sadly passed away. They were staunch supporters of historical research and constantly encouraged our endeavours. We encountered many others like them across the region, people who are passionate about understanding the past and committed to efforts to introduce young people to their history.
PREFACE
Ekurhuleni, one of the country’s primary metropolitan areas, is merely a decade old. Whereas the promulgation of its more prominent urban neighbours – Johannesburg and Tshwane – as metropolitan areas involved the incorporation of smaller peripheral areas into major pre-existing cities, Ekurhuleni was created from the amalgamation of several relatively equal towns in what was historically known as the East Rand. Each of its constituent towns, including the suburbs, industrial areas, and especially the black residential areas attached to them, have rich histories going back to at least the start of the 20th century. This book is the first to attempt to weave together the separate threads of the pasts of each of these areas into a common historical narrative of the entire region.
Previously published books were usually commissioned by local municipalities to celebrate one or other milestone in the history of the white town. Written during the apartheid years, they focused almost exclusively on the achievements of the white population and were in fact premised on the basic notion that towns were places of white history and development. Their pages were filled with accounts of the experiences of white (usually male) pioneers in mining, industry and local politics. Black residents of these towns were excluded from these official histories, and when they did make fleeting appearances it was generally either as labourers and troublemakers or to demonstrate the goodwill and paternalism of the white authorities towards ‘its blacks’. Women and youth were similarly marginalised: white women were represented as wives or social entertainers, and white youth either as jovial or boisterously anti-social. Social strife, industrial action and political contestations were also downplayed (Benoni, Son of my Sorrow, is the one exception) in order to construct narratives of peaceful progress and enlightened development.
Several of these hagiographic accounts were produced prior to the 1970s. Those written after 1976 ignored or were oblivious to a large body of scholarly research undertaken from the 1970s, which produced fundamentally different histories and interpretations from the officially sanctioned books. Inspired by the turn to social history, academics and students based at universities wrote new histories that emphasised the role of ordinary people – women, men, workers, squatters, tenants and youth – in the making of their own history. Above all else, they consciously aimed to fill the major gap in the existing literature, namely, to recover the histories of ordinary people, especially the black oppressed. The collection of oral testimonies has played a critical role in this process of rewriting histories ‘from below’. Ekurhuleni has been a major site of this research, especially by scholars associated with the activities of the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand. In addition to our own work, the research undertaken by, among others, Sapire, Sitas, Cohen, Webster, Callinicos, Lambert, Gilfoyle, Mooney, Moloi, Seekings, Brink, Menachemson, Ruiters, and Ndima, has generated a rich and diverse set of historical analyses. These writers chiefly drew attention to the complex processes of urbanisation (and particularly the role played by African and Afrikaner women), the making of working class cultures, popular insurgent movements, ethnic-based violence, and the re-emergence of independent trade unions and civic movements from the 1970s, and posited innovative analyses of the contestations in the making of apartheid and the political violence
