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Our photos of the week

 

See the past as you never knew it, and take a peek into our rich resources of photographs from the City's museums. We'll be adding a new image every week.

 


 

MAY

International Workers Day, or May Day came about from the struggle of workers for an eight-hour day, and reasonable working conditions. It is celebrated on the anniversary of the Chicago Haymarket Massacre of 1886, where police fired on strikers, killing several people.

 

South Africa only introduced Workers’ Day as an official national public holiday with the introduction of the Public Holidays Act, No. 36 of 1994, following the democratic elections in April of that year.

Before 1994 the demand to observe Workers Day on 1 May, along with other significant days, was a rallying point for the unions and political organisations opposing apartheid and the Nationalist Party regime.

Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) was formed on 1 December 1985, with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) one of its largest members.

The 1st of May 1986 was the 100th anniversary of International Labour Day, and to mark it Cosatu, together with the Transvaal Indian Congress, called for a stay-away, with the support of the UDF, the National Education Crisis Committee as well as other more conservative organizations.

It was a great success and over one and half million people did not go to work. Employers were asked to treat it as a paid holiday for their workers. Premier Foods was the first of the big companies to grant their workers paid holidays on 1 May and 16 June, and many other companies followed suit.

The following year Cosatu launched its “Living Wage” campaign on 1 May 1987. The apartheid government declared that day a public holiday, as a way of saving face, but did not alter the law to include the day as public holiday in following years


A nanny teaching the alphabet to two young girls, March 1969. Courtesy the Natal Witness. Museum Africa collection

 

 


Mending clothes, gold miners’ compound, 1975. Museum Africa collection

 

 


“James”, a gardener, pencil and wash by Sadie Reichman, 1950. Museum Africa collection

 

 

April

Supporters of the accused gather outside the Drill Hall at the corner of Noord and Twist Streets at the start of the Treason Trial on 19 December 1956.

 

  • Supporters of the accused gather outside the Drill Hall at the corner of Noord and Twist Streets at the start of the Treason Trial on 19 December 1956. The trial, which went on until March 1961 after it had moved to Pretoria, gathered a huge amount of both local and international support and attention. All charges were eventually dismissed against the 156 accused, which included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Ahmed Kathrada, O.R. Tambo and Chief Albert Luthuli. Photo from the Rand Daily Mail - Museum Africa
  • Supporters of the accused gather outside the Drill Hall in Johannesburg at the start of the Treason Trial on 19 December 1956. Supporters are led in song, hymns and prayers as part of their demonstrations. Photo from the Rand Daily Mail - Museum Africa
  • Ameena Cachalia embraces Walter Sisulu at the conclusion of the Treason Trial in Pretoria, 29 March 1961. Justice FL Rumpff ruled that although the ANC was working to replace the government and had used illegal means of protest during the Defiance Campaign, the Crown had failed to show that the ANC was using violence to overthrow the government, and were therefore not-guilty of treason. The remaining 30 trialists, including Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela and were therefore discharged. Ameena and her husband Yusuf were both active in the Defiance Campaign and in their support of the accused through the Treason Trial. Photo by Struan Robertson – Bensusan Museum of Photography; Photographic Collection; Museum Africa
  • The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was adopted by the ANC at their annual conference in Bloemfontein in December 1951 where it was decided to implement a national action the following year based on non-cooperation with certain laws considered unjust and discriminatory.

March

Water carriers at work

 

  • Doornfontein Reservoir, Johannesburg's first reservoir, under construction in 1888 <br>The Reservoir was completed in 1889 and the Johannesburg Waterworks Estate and Exploration Company claimed that it could supply 750,000 gallons of water per day from its springs in Doornfontein and Berea. However, by 1893 a large portion of the town's inhabitants were still drawing their water from wells and rain water tanks
  • First major water shortage in Johannesburg in 1895 Drought hit in 1895 and Johannesburg experienced its first major water shortage. Water was sold by the bucket load for high prices and it was even rumoured that some of the wealthy Randlords bathed in soda water during the drought!
  • Appointment of the Water Works Commission.The 1895 drought and subsequent water shortage lead to the appointment of the Water Works Commission in which geologist Dr David Draper (pictured here) assisted the Commission and found a water supply on the farm Zuurbekom. The Zuurbekom Water Supply Company wells for the first time ensured a constant water supply to the town. However, it was only in 1923, when the Vaal River Barrage was opened, that the Rand was for the first time assured a plentiful water supply for its population and industries.
  • Drilling for water in early Johannesburg. With the town's rapidly increasing population and mining industry, the quest for a stable water supply was becoming urgent.

February

We take a look at the earliest flights in Johannesburg.

 

  • Kimmerling's flight causes huge public interest. The Rand Daily Mail also described arrangements of public interest. For that auspicious Saturday afternoon in February, there would be extra public trams to Orange Grove. There would also be public notifications of the weather conditions- 'a red flag will be flown from the Corner House Buildings, Carlton Hotel, and Messrs. Cuthberts...to denote that the conditions are good and that a flight will take place…between 3 and 6'o clock p.m.'
  • First powered flight in Johannesburg, 1910. At the end of February 1910, visiting Frenchman and an avid aviator Albert Kimmerling made three powered flights near Orange Grove, Johannesburg in a VoisinCanard biplane. One source describes the flight as a series of 'long hops'. Kimmerling had also previously made the first powered flight in South Africa in East London in December 1909. Kimmerling was killed in an aircraft accident on 9 June 1912 in Mourmelon, France.
  • Special arrangements for Kimmerling's flight. The Rand Daily Mail of 1st February 1910 ran a feature on various arrangements being made for the occasion of 'The Flying Machine'. Details include the erection of a special garage for Kimmerling's plane, which was being moved to the flying grounds on Sydenham Hill, near Orange Grove, Johannesburg.

January

As children across South Africa head back to school for the start of the new year, we take a look at some of Johannesburg's earliest schools.

 

  • Johannesburg Public School, Government Square, May 1892. State schools were only introduced by the ZAR government in 1896, and then the official language of instruction was Dutch - although English and parallel medium schools were also provided.
  • St Paul's Methodist Church opened in 1893, the first church to minister to Joburg's black population. Congregants would gather in the evenings to worship and to learn basic literacy and arithmetic. Soon these adult classes were extended to serve a growing number of black children residing in the town and the Albert Street School was born. The school ran for over half a century and was eventually closed by the apartheid government in 1958. The school reopened in 2008 as the Albert Street Refugee School. This photograph dates from 1926.
  • The first German School opened in 1897 in Hillbrow with funds raised by Joburg's significant early German community. By July 1898 the school had 149 learners. The school moved to Parktown in 1969.
  • The Convent of the Holy Family School in Doornfontein, c.1903: one of the first schools established in Joburg. It opened on 1 October 1887 with 47 female pupils at the convent on the corner of Fox and Smal streets.

 


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