Another nail in the coffin

Another nail in the coffin
Another nail in the coffin of the AmaWasha was a new contingent of washer people - Chinese and Indians. By 1914 there were 46 Chinese laundries in Johannesburg, located in Fordsburg and Jeppe, where some of the AmaWasha were employed. They serviced the surrounding white working classes, which meant they didn't need horses and carts. Indian laundrymen established themselves in the outlying areas. Economic conditions started to improve by 1909 - and that's when the steam laundries started to reap the benefits. Rand Steam Laundries had 13 branches along the reef by 1910, with 33 delivery vans and 200 white women and 100 black men at its headquarters at Richmond, Van Onselen says. Between 1910 and 1911 three new laundries - the International, the Model and the New York Steam Laundry - were formed and by 1912 the steam laundries had control of the town's dirty washing. And the dirty war of price fixing and cartels made its presence felt. But a broader international movement played a role too. Advertisements for washing machines began to appear in 1903, promising, "No more wash boys needed!" More and more working class white households were undertaking their domestic chores within the home. The AmaWasha made a last stand by meeting with municipal officials, who only responded by raising rail rates. So the AmaWasha bypassed them and went to the government. Another meeting was held in the presence of the secretary for native affairs, W Windham, who assured the washermen that the council would "listen most carefully to their grievances". But nothing came of it. "If the council did listen it certainly did not act, and shortly thereafter the Transvaal government officials concerned were absorbed into the Union's new civil service. "The noose of segregation around the black laundrymen's necks was never loosened, and the 1910 meeting concluded with the remnants of the Zulu washermen's guild singing their way into economic oblivion to the strains of the national anthem." By 1934, only 14 men still worked at the Klipspruit site and in 1953 the site was closed. Van Onselen concludes that, "Zulu speakers were at least as quick as any other immigrant group on the early Witwatersrand to spot a new economic opportunity and exploit it". But as the town grew they became vulnerable when exposed to "capitalist competition" which invested in steam laundries. Their decline was "greatly hastened by the advent of urban segregation".

Another nail in the coffin of the AmaWasha was a new contingent of washer people - Chinese and Indians. By 1914 there were 46 Chinese laundries in Johannesburg, located in Fordsburg and Jeppe, where some of the AmaWasha were employed. They serviced the surrounding white working classes, which meant they didn't need horses and carts. Indian laundrymen established themselves in the outlying areas.

Economic conditions started to improve by 1909 - and that's when the steam laundries started to reap the benefits. Rand Steam Laundries had 13 branches along the reef by 1910, with 33 delivery vans and 200 white women and 100 black men at its headquarters at Richmond, Van Onselen says.

Between 1910 and 1911 three new laundries - the International, the Model and the New York Steam Laundry - were formed and by 1912 the steam laundries had control of the town's dirty washing. And the dirty war of price fixing and cartels made its presence felt.

But a broader international movement played a role too. Advertisements for washing machines began to appear in 1903, promising, "No more wash boys needed!" More and more working class white households were undertaking their domestic chores within the home.

The AmaWasha made a last stand by meeting with municipal officials, who only responded by raising rail rates. So the AmaWasha bypassed them and went to the government. Another meeting was held in the presence of the secretary for native affairs, W Windham, who assured the washermen that the council would "listen most carefully to their grievances". But nothing came of it.

"If the council did listen it certainly did not act, and shortly thereafter the Transvaal government officials concerned were absorbed into the Union's new civil service.

"The noose of segregation around the black laundrymen's necks was never loosened, and the 1910 meeting concluded with the remnants of the Zulu washermen's guild singing their way into economic oblivion to the strains of the national anthem."

By 1934, only 14 men still worked at the Klipspruit site and in 1953 the site was closed.

Van Onselen concludes that, "Zulu speakers were at least as quick as any other immigrant group on the early Witwatersrand to spot a new economic opportunity and exploit it". But as the town grew they became vulnerable when exposed to "capitalist competition" which invested in steam laundries. Their decline was "greatly hastened by the advent of urban segregation".