Down South again

Down South again
A new British pass law disallowed the pass-exemption provision - a big blow that sought to reduce the AmaWasha's central competitive site at Richmond and reduce them to the status of servants. In April 1902 this site was cleared of all washermen and they were moved to Concordia, again down south. What they didn't know, though, was that this was only halfway to their final destination, assisted by the outbreak of plague in 1904, when the council cleared the "Coolie Location", just west of Museum Africa, for fear of the disease spreading. The council acquired the farm Klipspruit, 21 kilometres south of the town, and by May 1904 all the AmaWasha were moved there, to join the new residents who had been resettled in the area. This move was not without protest. In March 1904 a mass meeting was held in market square, attended by the Brickfields residents. The Amawasha led the crowd in the singing and chanting, in a déjà vu experience - they'd been expelled from the town in 1896. Of course these developments played into the hands of the laundry capitalists, who experienced a rise in business as people streamed back into the town after the war. Laundries expanded and Rand Steam Laundries in Richmond was formed at the site of the biggest from 1890. It operated on the site until 1962. Today that site is an untidy mix of light industries, and is threatened with demolition by its new owner. The AmaWasha, emasculated in their new location, did what they had done in 1897 - undertook a mass re-entry into the town. This time, however, new segregatory legislation denied them access to their old centralised sites and instead they set up shop in peripheral sites at Claremont, Craighall, Concordia and Langlaagte. But the authorities had long-term plans. By early 1906 an ironing room, a fenced-in drying site and 100 concrete wash basins had been erected at Klipspruit. "With blind ruthlessness and staggering cynicism the council prepared to move the washermen for the last time - this time to an uneconomic washing site that shared its setting with the municipal sewerage works," Van Onselen says. Today remains of the sewerage works are still visible but the basins have disappeared. Under pressure from the council, some washermen packed up and left for KwaZulu-Natal. In early 1907 about 75 washermen moved out east and rented sites on the farm Elandsfontein, but the back of the manual washing industry had been broken. By that year 300 wash basins in Klipspruit had been built. Yet combined with expensive licence fees, the industry slowly started to die. And there was another factor, a repeat of an earlier problem. "As had been the case at Witbank 10 years earlier, it was the absence of cheap and efficient rail transport that did most to ruin the small businessmen who had been relegated to a segregated site miles out of town." Of course, this eroded their customer base. And worse was to come - a depression hit the Witwatersrand between 1906 and 1908, with working-class whites joining the ranks of the unemployed. The small group of washermen at Elandsfontein resisted pressure to move south. Instead they first moved further east to Rietvlei, but by December 1907 they had all moved to Klipspruit.

A new British pass law disallowed the pass-exemption provision - a big blow that sought to reduce the AmaWasha's central competitive site at Richmond and reduce them to the status of servants. In April 1902 this site was cleared of all washermen and they were moved to Concordia, again down south.

What they didn't know, though, was that this was only halfway to their final destination, assisted by the outbreak of plague in 1904, when the council cleared the "Coolie Location", just west of Museum Africa, for fear of the disease spreading. The council acquired the farm Klipspruit, 21 kilometres south of the town, and by May 1904 all the AmaWasha were moved there, to join the new residents who had been resettled in the area.

This move was not without protest. In March 1904 a mass meeting was held in market square, attended by the Brickfields residents. The Amawasha led the crowd in the singing and chanting, in a déjà vu experience - they'd been expelled from the town in 1896.

Of course these developments played into the hands of the laundry capitalists, who experienced a rise in business as people streamed back into the town after the war. Laundries expanded and Rand Steam Laundries in Richmond was formed at the site of the biggest from 1890. It operated on the site until 1962. Today that site is an untidy mix of light industries, and is threatened with demolition by its new owner.

The AmaWasha, emasculated in their new location, did what they had done in 1897 - undertook a mass re-entry into the town. This time, however, new segregatory legislation denied them access to their old centralised sites and instead they set up shop in peripheral sites at Claremont, Craighall, Concordia and Langlaagte.

But the authorities had long-term plans. By early 1906 an ironing room, a fenced-in drying site and 100 concrete wash basins had been erected at Klipspruit.

"With blind ruthlessness and staggering cynicism the council prepared to move the washermen for the last time - this time to an uneconomic washing site that shared its setting with the municipal sewerage works," Van Onselen says. Today remains of the sewerage works are still visible but the basins have disappeared.

Under pressure from the council, some washermen packed up and left for KwaZulu-Natal. In early 1907 about 75 washermen moved out east and rented sites on the farm Elandsfontein, but the back of the manual washing industry had been broken.

By that year 300 wash basins in Klipspruit had been built. Yet combined with expensive licence fees, the industry slowly started to die. And there was another factor, a repeat of an earlier problem.

"As had been the case at Witbank 10 years earlier, it was the absence of cheap and efficient rail transport that did most to ruin the small businessmen who had been relegated to a segregated site miles out of town."

Of course, this eroded their customer base. And worse was to come - a depression hit the Witwatersrand between 1906 and 1908, with working-class whites joining the ranks of the unemployed. The small group of washermen at Elandsfontein resisted pressure to move south. Instead they first moved further east to Rietvlei, but by December 1907 they had all moved to Klipspruit.