building a new south africa (excerpt)

8/9/2019 Building a New South Africa (excerpt)

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Contents

Map of Sophiatown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Introduction to the US Edition

David Thelen and Karie L. Morgan . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with

Neighbours on the Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Block Group Meeting – Good and Gold

Streets – 7 June 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Block Group Meeting – Bertha Street –

24 June 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2: Visualising a Shared Place

and Making a Shared Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Good and Gold Streets – Photovoice

Discussion – 28 June and 15 July 2009 . . . . . . . 23

Bertha Street – Photovoice Discussion –

19 July 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 3: Making Family around Mealtimes . . . . . 57

Remembering Family Mealtimes:

A Conversation among Sophiatown

Cooking Club Members –

15 October 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Glimpses of Cooking in Sophiatown . . . . . . . . .65

Comment – Challenges of Modern

Mealtimes: Reflections by René

Lombardi – 11 October 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Comment – Making Food and Heritage:

Reflections by Tshepo Letsoalo –

13 September 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Chapter 4: Becoming Neighbours and

Creating Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Raising a Family with Neighbours: A Workshop – 23 May 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77



Comment – Getting to Know Neighbours

and Choosing a Neighbourhood:

Reflections by Sebastian van Rayne –

25 November 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Comment – Overcoming Barriers to

Become Better Neighbours: Reflections

by Noeriena Hendricks –24 November 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Keeping your Family Safe: A Workshop

– 19 May 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Encountering and Helping People in

Distress: A Conversation among Young

People – 9 October 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Comment – Growing Up and Helping

Others: A Conversation between TwoSisters – 8 November 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Comment – Making a Difference in your

Community: Reflections by Noeriena

Hendricks – 18 November 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Comment – Helping South Africans in Need:

Reflections by Charles Kwasi Asare –

9 November 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Chapter 5: Experiencing Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Living over Half a Century in a Changing

Sophiatown: A Conversation with Long-time

Residents – 8 November 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Struggling with Memories of Triomf and

Sophiatown: A Conversation between a

Mother and Daughter – 3 August 2009 . . . . . . 136

Comparing Sophiatown and Westbury:

A Conversation across Generations –

27 October 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

New Choices and Responsibilities in the

New South Africa: Conversations among

Toby Street Residents – 27 June and

4 August 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Encountering and Overcoming Shifting

Barriers through the South African

Transition – Reflections by Erica Moumakwa –

29 October 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Exploring New Ways of Relating in theNew South Africa: A Conversation with

a Couple from the Old South Africa –

10 May 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Contemplating Ways toward a

New South African Future: A Visit to

a Mysterious Room – 4 October 2012 . . . . . . . 160

Epilogue Pastor Desmond Sheik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171



Getting Acquainted with

Neighbours on the Block

On a Sunday afternoon, 7 June 2009, 13 residents

of the southern end of Good and Gold streets

came together in a park that joined their two streets

to discuss how they could get to know each other bet-

ter and how together they might build a community

on their streets that could better meet their needs.

Seventeen days later, on the evening of 24 June 2009,

13 residents of Bertha Street convened at the nearby

NG Kerk to discuss the same concerns.

The two meetings were the first fruits of a collabora-

tion between University of Johannesburg organisers

and Sophiatown residents. The initial meeting was or-

ganised by Judi Bennett and Clement Baai, residents

of Good Street, and Dave Thelen and Tom Chapman,

then coordinators of field work for the UJ Sophiatown

Project. Judi and Clement distributed fliers inviting

their neighbours to the Good and Gold streets meet-

ing. Tom and Dave approached residents of BerthaStreet as they arrived home from work in the evenings

and invited them to the Bertha Street meeting. The

organisers told residents that the conversations would

centre on what people liked and disliked about life i

Sophiatown, how they wanted to reshape that life an

how they could get to know their neighbours better.

When the conversations began, few of the participan

knew each other. Some had lived for decades in Soph

atown. Others had moved there quite recently. Wit

Dave facilitating, the conversations revolved aroun

concerns about getting to know neighbours bette

and making a difference in shaping the community

future. Residents took the conversations in several di

ferent directions. Some spoke of their intimate hope

and fears about staying here. Others referred to ho

personal experiences in the nation and Sophiatow

had shaped their perspectives on life here. The

brought up experiences and perspectives they share

as well as those they disagreed about. But by the en

of both two-hour meetings, most participants said tha

they felt that the conversations had brought themcloser together and they looked forward to carryin

this further at future meetings.



2 | B U I L D I N G A N E W S O U T H A F R I C A

Block Group Meeting

Good and Gold Streets

7 June 2009*

* This conversation happened in the park where Good and Gold streets join. Participants included: Dave Thelen, Tom Chapman, Judi

Bennett, Sarel van der Berg, Mrs van der Berg, Earl, Elise, Clement Baai, Mervyn Naidoo, Bashni Naidoo, Bettie Pretorius, Pieter Blignaut,

Malie Moodliar and Renate van Gruenen.

Dave Thelen: You’ve been talking with each other in

small groups. Can you report now what you discussedin your group about what struck you as important

when you were thinking about moving or leaving here,

what you like about life here, what is less attractive?

Judi Bennett: Sarel, you and I have just about had the

entire discussion without the microphone so we will

have to start over again.

Sarel van der Berg: We moved in here about 1973. It’s

a beautiful place to stay in. You could go to the shops

and leave your door open. We did leave it open andnothing happened. Triomf was Telkom’s area. Most of

First meeting of Good and Gold streets block group

Elise and Clement in smallgroup conversation



G E T T I N G A C Q U A I N T E D W I T H N E I G H B O U R S O N T H E B L O C K |

the blokes in Telkom stayed in Triomf. Other owners

were the police and bus drivers.

Elise: Clement and I spoke about how long we both

have lived here and what we would like to see in the

area, like a community centre – a recreation place for

kids, adults, a library, that type of thing – where you

don’t have to go out of the area to other areas to en-

joy those facilities, but you can actually have it in the

area.

Dave: And were there things you specifically liked

here?

Clement Baai: We came from different areas. I said to

Elise that my reasons for moving here were number

one, affordability, number two, the place is very cen-

tral. It’s quite safe. Look, there are some incidents, we

heard about a few incidents, but it’s quite safe. And

then also the history of this place.

Dave: What do you mean by that?

Clement: Look, we know how Sophiatown happened.

We know it was Sophiatown first, Triomf, then again

Sophiatown. We know about the Miriam Makebas,

the Desmond Tutus. We know that this was the area

where all the races lived together. And I just found

out a few years ago that my house was a photo stu-

dio. We never knew, you understand. I was saying that

you guys are walking on holy ground here. We know

that Meadowlands people are coming from here. A

certain part of Westbury and Newclare was born out

of Triomf/Sophiatown. So I was saying to Bashni that

a gathering like this is good in a sense that one of my

daughters is in her son’s class. We’ve never formally

introduced each other. Today we’ve met, you under-

stand. And then through this gathering, our children

are going to benefit. When I’m not here, if Auntie Be

tie sees someone standing here in front of my gate

she should say, “Heya, what are you doing here? Clem

ent is not here. Who are you?” I just found out the lad

at the corner house passed away a month ago. I onl

found out a week after. When I went to go sympathise

the man said, “I didn’t know who to tell in the street

Which is so sad.

Dave: Does that sound familiar to others?

Mervyn Naidoo: As Clement said we feel the same way

We’ve got kids in the same class and the same schoo

but we don’t know each other. There is no commun

cation. Nobody wants to take the time to get to know

your neighbour. We are four years in this area. Wha

we found is that a lot of the white folks in the are

are unfriendly. When we greet them they don’t gree

back. It’s sad.

Judi: Well, Sarel and Bettie were talking about the ol

days when this park was a place their children played

with the little cars and etc. and what I noticed here you don’t see that any longer. Inherently we are ver

similar and we would like to live our lives as they lived i

Triomf and the areas I lived in. We have similar thing

in common. It seems that because we lived in differen

areas we have not found the common ground we have

I would also like to see the children play safely. I woul

like to see the children play in the street; and in th

same way, I would like to see what Sarel saw in the pas

happen all over again, irrespective of the colour of th

child. It just has to be the community that you want tsee, the way you remember it.

Dave: How do you remember it? The same way?




Bettie Pretorius: The same way as it was. We lived here

now 28 years in this house. To me it’s still the same

except the children can’t play outside. And now they

can’t play rugby in the field.

Mervyn: The kids are scared of the hooligans. I

wouldn’t allow our kids out of the gates if I’m not

here. They play with the bikes on the road and it’ssafe, but if we see the hooligans on the road we take

them back in.

Clement: I was just saying to Elise about three weeks

ago I came past here and there was a group of 15

school children sitting here. Boys and girls and they

were drinking. I chased them away. The thing is they

are not even from this area. So our children can’t

come and play here. And then they have the audacity

to say to me, “It’s my money. I bought the liquor with

my money.” But the thing is, they won’t be allowed to

go and buy. They get someone else to buy it for them.

I believe that it is the car guards. These are the type

of things that we must come up against. We can’t allow

people to come and sit here. Look at this thing. Some-

one was sitting there and drinking.

Mervyn: We see it all the time. My neighbour, the pas-

tor, gets his boy and comes and cleans up and it’s not

right.

Judi: Whose responsibility is that in a sense? Firstly it’s

against the law to drink in public, so we could have

called the police. We could have had people make

sure this is a no-go area. This is a park and this is what

is allowed in a park. I think sometimes we tend to see

things but don’t take responsibility. I want to stress

the aspect, until we got to know each other, we didn’t

know who was going to do it. Now that we do know

each other we need to take responsibility for our own

area, be a bit more proactive. These things don’t need

to happen. I believe if those children know there is an

area that those aunties and uncles are going to give

you a hard time, they are going to avoid it. We take

ownership of it. As adults we shouldn’t neglect our re-

sponsibility to teach children that what you are doing

is wrong. Whether they accept it or not we still have

to try.

Mervyn: I have actually tried to do that once when

they abused the swings and they told me, “It’s not

yours, go away.” You don’t want a confrontation be-

cause the parents can shoot you.

Judi: Now you mention something about someone go-

ing to take out a gun and shoot you; and we carry on

living in this particular mindset. We also pass that on

to our children. We become more and more drawn

in, blocked in, and we are always afraid. Besides, if

the guy came with a gun, ons moer and bliksem and

donner. Take the gun away.

Sarel and his wife, Malie Moodliar and Judi in small groupconversation




Mervyn: At the same time the neighbour doesn’t want

to take a chance either.

Judi: That’s why we need to get to know each other. It’s

not a matter of you just getting to know your neigh-

bour. It’s sometimes a matter of seeing another per-

son in the same way that you would see yourself and

treat each other in the same way that you would want

to be treated. And you find the old fashioned cliché,

respect breeds respect. By knowing each other, we get

to understand each other. Let’s go a little further.

Elise: It’s safer not to get involved but then you are

going to let things happen.

Judi: But if you teach that to your child we’re going

to eventually live in communities where everything is

bricked in. We are going to have to press our fingers to

open the gate. We will be bricked in. You might as well

close down the park area and we’re not going to do

anything about it because we’re not getting involved.

Mervyn: But the thing is we can’t do it alone.

Judi: No, I agree, and that is why we have to do it as

a forum. He spoke about so many things that we’re

not aware of. We didn’t know there was a committee

in this area. So basically what those people are doing

is absolutely nothing. We live in this particular area.

We can try to do something because they can’t. We

can try.

Judi: Yes, we can. If that’s what it takes we can.

Bettie: They closed that one alleyway there and it’s saf-

er when it’s closed.

Bashni Naidoo: So we can stop at least half of the traf-

fic from Westbury.

Judi: Okay, we will probably choose to do that as

community at another meeting and see what we ca

do with that.

Dave: So, what other things did you talk about in you

groups?

Sarel: Sophiatown has the Helen Joseph Hospita

That was a number one hospital. The first angiogram

I had was there, R45 and they kept me there for

week.

Bettie: Die was a skoon hospitaal gewees. (It was

clean hospital.)

Sarel: It was the heart transplant place, the best.

Judi: Incidentally, has the clinic finally opened?

Sarel: There seems to be a new building.

Judi: So it has.

Bashni: We also talked about the schools in the area

There is an Afrikaans school here and I think that’s i

Judi: That school has only recently introduced English instruction. They started at Grade 0. They’v

now reached I think Grade 4 with English but the res

is Afrikaans.

Sarel: One of the best things they ever had in thos

years was a dual medium. I never knew Afrikaans.

Judi: The West Rand Primary, the English medium

school, is a Seventh Day Adventist private school. No

you see a lot of people may not want their children t

go to West Rand because it’s a Seventh Day Adventisschool and they have chapel. It’s a different thing de

pending on your religion. We did let my nephew an

niece go there because we had no affiliation with an




church and we thought this would serve both purpos-

es. They could go to chapel and school. But once that

was finished then we had to take them to other high

schools.

Bashni: As you said, it wouldn’t work for our family

because of cultural differences.

Mervyn: Another annoying thing is the quad bikes in

that park. They abuse the place, make a loud noise

and damage the grass. You can’t believe it: you look at

the TV but you don’t hear what is on the TV because

of the guy on the stop street and his music. That’s ter-

rible really.

Judi: And you’re right on the corner and you get it

on both sides. My mother told me wherever you go

you don’t want a house on the corner. She told me

straight.

Dave: So did other things come up when you thought

about coming here, or when you think about leaving

here? What do you find attractive or what did you find

unattractive about this earlier place?

Bettie: It’s central. Plenty of schools.

Sarel: It’s peaceful.

Mervyn: It’s home, in the sense of family, the commu-

nity and I think security as well.

Mervyn: What I would like to see is for a lot of the

neighbours to come together. Have a picnic in the

park. Get together and get to know each other. We

don’t know each other. We’ve got a lot of older folk. Anything can go wrong with them or me for that mat-

ter. And no one wants to take the time to help. Which

is sad. We are building a community.

Judi: I was speaking to your mother-in-law because I

know the kind of community you come from. I was

talking to her and asking her just how lonely you must

be, because in your community you tend to live a lot as

a family unit. You are gregarious, you talk constantly

to each other and live together as a family and eat

together so she must be feeling exceptionally lonely.

Mervyn: Not only for her but us as well in the sense we

don’t know our neighbours. Some of the neighbours

don’t take the time to greet, yet we greet them. We

don’t even know if we see someone loitering who weshould communicate with.

Judi: Even if we did think there was something odd

about what we see someone doing, we don’t want to get

involved. That’s our problem. We don’t get involved.

Mervyn: You are creating your own home and you are

comfortable living there. There is too much invested

now. Even if we win the lotto, we will still stay there.

Clement: When we told our friends that we are goingto move here, some said, “Ja, you are moving into an

old, poor-white area.” Some of them were saying that

and I told them, “Look, number one, it’s my money

that I’m going to pay. I don’t care what you guys think,”

but I tell you three months after moving in some of my

friends came and visited and the very same ones that

had these comments asked us to look for houses for

them. They wanted to move into this area. But if you

look at it, it’s central. You may hear about odd inci-

dents, but it’s not like in the North Rand, Randburg, where you hear about hijackings, break-ins every day.

It’s really a place where your children can grow up

and you can get old.




Bettie: Dis ’n lekker area. (This is a nice area.)

Judi: One thing that we talked about when we moved

here is that this area is close to the hospital. We need-

ed to be in a central area. We also didn’t want to be

too far away from where we came from. So we didn’t

mind that we were a street away from Westbury. We

lived in the Western area for ages, so we were just a

street away. When you talk of crime we’ve got a lot

of petty crime here that might escalate. But I think

the first thing that I noticed when I moved here was

that there was only one bottle store at the centre. Inareas where I lived before there were shebeens on

every street and a bottle store next to every church.

There were usually more bottle stores than church-

es. Sophiatown I noticed had a lot of churches and

one bottle store. The crime here is all petty crime.

It’s got a lot to do with school children. This is not a

major crime area. As you say there are areas where

they break into the cars and some people have been

shot, but in the areas where I come from, gangsterism

was common but there was a rule: you didn’t go out of your territory. You didn’t even mess in your territory

and based on the way people always live, other people

stay out. It depends on how you handle your territory

and if our young children grew up in this area and

became proud and took ownership of this area, and

we allowed them out in the street, to sit in their own

park and become comfortable, it would become theirs

as well. We are never going to get rid of my territo-

ry, your territory but at least we would have a couple

of youngsters to defend us. You need all aspects of acommunity.

Dave: So can we go around the room and each per-

son give one or two words that describe Sophiatown

to you. When you think Sophiatown, what one or tw

words do you think of?

Clement: I think Sophiatown is based on famil

values.

Elise: I think still a degree of security here.

Judi: I see Sophiatown as the future. My future. This

where I’m going to stay.

Monica: In my opinion, I’m just a few months here

well, it’s a nice place.

Sarel: When I was working, before becoming a pro

fessional loafer, this was really a central area for me

I worked in Randburg. From here it was 20 minute

each way to get to work. It was very central for me an

it was cheap. I only paid R1350, which was a lot o

money. It was half my salary in those years.

Bettie: Vir my is dit huis. Dis veilig. Ek is tuis. Ek i

geanker. (For me this is home. It’s safe. I feel at home

I’m anchored.)

Bashni: Despite the quad bikes now and then there

peace and quiet here.

Earl: Central, peace and quiet.

Mervyn: Home and security.

Renate: I would say change. We would all get to know

each other so there should be a lot of challenges.

Judi: That is one thing that people say. I forgot tha

there are not many parties in this area. It really

quiet.

Clement: At the same time you’ve got to accommo

date people.




Judi: The unwritten rule in this area is that music

ends at 12:00.

Clement: The respect is there.

Judi: So, guess what’s going to happen. All the neigh-

bours are going to get to know each other, all the

neighbours are going to be invited to the party and

then we can party until 5:00 am the next morning be-

cause there’s nobody to complain.

Mervyn: That’s the nice thing around the festive time;

it’s nice if everybody gets together to have a party in

the park.

Bashni: You don’t even see anyone to wish them Hap-

py New Year.

Judi: I agree. We used to make a point of walking out

at midnight to greet everyone irrespective of who you

were.

Mervyn: We’ve got the facility right here. We need to

take the initiative.

Judi: We need to. And a lot of people have the most

beautiful Christmas decorations in this area. Some of

them are stunning.

Clement: I think we should have a five-a-side soccer,

some fun.

Mervyn: The kids need to have fun. We had fun as

kids.

Judi: From what I gather the ages of the children fit.

I’ve a nephew of 16, you’ve got 16 and 14, and then

you’ve got 14 and 11. The age groups fit very well.

Bashni: All they do now is just confined to the TV.

Bettie: Hulle het al square eyes. Hulle is te bang om

uit te kom. (They all have square eyes. They are too

afraid to come out.)

Judi: We also don’t let them out.

Renate: But if we have a fun day…

Mervyn: To socialise. That would be nice if the com-

munity would get together to socialise.

Bashni: I think having a sports day would be fun. We

could have a three-legged race.

Judi: Egg and spoon.

Bashni: Thread and needle.

Judi: You know what will happen on sports day, right?

The adults will have more fun and the kids will amuse

themselves at us.

Dave: Would there be interest in thinking about me-

morialising places in Sophiatown or commemorating?

Judi: Yes I think there would be as we want the chil-

dren to know, but also as you’ve discovered we know

very little of the history ourselves. We know very little

too.

Sarel: It’s true.




Block Group Meeting

Bertha Street

24 June 2009*

Dave Thelen: Let’s begin by introducing ourselves.

I’m Dave Thelen, a history professor at UJ who’s coor-

dinating this project with another UJ researcher here,

Tom Chapman. You met us in the street when we invit-

ed you to this meeting.

Carol Grieve: Okay. My name is Carol. I moved into

Sophiatown probably about four years ago and, yes,

I’ve been part of this community for a while. I’ve got

two kids. And I’m married to Mark.

Mark Grieve: My name is Mark. I am from Australia

originally. I’ve been here for seven years in total and

we planted a church in Sophiatown at the Sparrow

School. So that’s been going for eight months now.

Desmond Sheik: My name is Desmond Sheik. I’v

lived in Sophiatown for 11 years now and have a wif

and two kids.

Louis Ngwenya: My name is Mr Louis Ngwenya. I’v

been living here I think about three or four years

This is my wife Sylvia. We’ve got seven children. Bu

they’re not children any more.

Sylvia Ngwenya: I’m Sylvia Ngwenya. I stay in Berth

Street, four years. I love it. It’s a very nice place to live

Riva: I will just do the talking for both of us. M

name is Riva and this is my husband, Braam. I wa

born here. Braam has only been here for about tw

* This meeting happened at the NG Kerk in Sophiatown. Participants included: Dave Thelen, Tom Chapman, Carol Grieve, Mark Grieve,

Desmond Sheik, Louis Ngwenya, Sylvia Ngwenya, Riva, Braam, Thea Ouwenkamp, Nazeem Heuvel, Willie van der Sandt, Peterson

Matorwa, Leminah Matorwa and Robert Mupanga.

Participants mingle after first Bertha Street meeting




years now, but ja, I was born where I’m living at the

moment.

Thea Ouwenkamp: I’m Thea. I’m staying 31 years

here. It was first Triomf and now Sophiatown.

Nazeem Heuvel: My name is Nazeem. I’m staying in

Bertha Street for 17 years now. And I came originally

from Cape Town to Joburg in 1976. I’m in the build-

ing industry.

Robert Mupanga: I’m Robert. I’m still new to the area

but I really like the place. I stay with my uncle.

Riva: But I’d like to know what everybody does. I real-

ly want to know.

Thea: I’m working at Mutual & Federal in the Ac-

counts Department, in town.

Willie van der Sandt: I buy steel for a living.

Tom: I’m a researcher and an architect as well.

Louis: I work for a shopping centre. If you come there,

we can sell you cold beer. [Laughter]

Riva: I work for Elliott Relocations. We relocate expats

from overseas back into South Africa. We find them

homes, schools, show them how things work around

here. People coming back or being repatriated by

their companies for a two year or whatever.

Braam: I work for Protea Coin Security. I’m the drop-

off manager at the Edenvale branch.

Sylvia: I work for the golf course.

Nazeem: I’m a builder. I work for myself.

Desmond: I’m a marriage counsellor for about

14 years and I’m a full-time pastor and I have my own

business also that I do.

Mark: I’m also a pastor at a community church at

Sparrow School.

Carol: I’m a pastor’s wife. Let me just think of what

I do, so yes, I’m a full-time mother. Yes, so I work 24

hours a day and I don’t get paid much.

Riva: And you get to sleep with the boss. [Laughter]

Leminah Matorwa: I am a farmer. [Laughter]

Peterson Matorwa: She does the garden at home. I am

an engineer for BP oil company. I’m an asset manager;

I look after a couple of areas in the engineering.

Dave: So, when you think about Sophiatown the way

it is now, what do you like about it? What’s the best

thing about living in Sophiatown? What brought you

to move here, whether you moved here 50 years ago

or two weeks ago?

Peterson: I moved here about two years ago. The main

thing we liked about the place was that it’s quiet. It’s

not a place where you just see people roaming oridling around. You don’t see people playing loud mu-

sic. So it’s a good place to invest in, and also the fact

that it is near the university. We have a kid going to

university and UJ’s, like, within walking distance. It’s

always nice to be close to the university.

Braam: It’s a hop and a skip anywhere; we are near the

highways, the hospital, UJ. It’s very convenient.

Desmond: I think being central, for me, and we have a

history. My granny grew up in this place. I think some-times I would give anything to live in a township. This

is like a walking time bomb sometimes. When I just

moved here I had a terrible experience. What I want

to say is sometimes being central doesn’t necessarily




say anything about the ubuntu spirit. Being a people

that live here, you keep to yourself, you don’t bother

anybody. You keep your dogs in the yard; they keep

their dogs in the yard. The cat is in the house. You

feed your dogs, go to work and come back. That is

the life. That is how I know it. You just do your thing

and klaar. That’s it. That is my experience and I think

the way forward is going to be very exciting. After

they moved us out of the original Sophiatown and

into Westbury they caged us in like animals. But the

spirit that came out of Sophiatown went to the town-

ship where the people went. So that is what is missing

from this community now. Be it race, creed or colour,

that is what they had here and that is what’s missing

now. To me sometimes it’s like people just accommo-

date one another. I’m very interested to see what do

we come up with, to see the way we’re going to go.

Not talk about crime. I’m not here to discuss crime. I

think everybody’s had enough about that. But to talk

about creating a new history, that’s why I’m here. I’d

like to see what we can come up with.

Mark: When we moved to the area, one of the main

reasons was it was multi-racial. Being a mixed couple

it was hard to find another suburb in South Africa

that had such diversity. And it was only a few years lat-

er that we started thinking about planting a church.

Our whole purpose of planting the church, one of our

core values, was to create a multi-racial church. We

actually went to every church in Sophiatown, I think

it was 13, and we either found a black congregation

or a white congregation but very little mixing. When we asked people what sort of church would they like

in this community, a lot said they wanted a multi-ra-

cial church, which we found interesting. I think what

you’re saying is exactly how we feel as well. It would

be great to live in a place where you knew your neigh

bours and had friendships all around on the street

and people generally knew each other regardless o

race and colour.

Riva: I think to be able to move forward we need to g

back. Growing up here, I was born here and it’s bee

40-odd years. It used to be like that. I can remembe

in high school, going to Vorentoe, everybody liter

ally knew everybody else and we would visit acros

and the kids would also be at somebody’s house an

the parents knew where the kids were at any time And they would go out for walks around the bloc

or whatever. People knew one another and greete

one another. I think it’s not a question of who move

into the town or neighbourhood or who moved out.

think it’s a common thing and it’s not just Triomf o

Sophiatown. It’s a culture thing that has sprung u

amongst people who are too busy for one another

They don’t have time. We rush to work, rush home

It takes double the amount of time to go to work an

get back home. So we need to actually go back an

be able to create a new future or history. We need t

go back. Like you said ubuntu, we obviously call i

something else, but we need to go back and get tha

and bring it towards us again going forward.

Peterson: After we arrived here we went to a church

We didn’t know about the names, old name and new

name, of Triomf/Sophiatown. When I stood to intro

duce myself and the family I mentioned the previou

name. I didn’t know what it meant. I was cautione whilst I was standing that, for the sake of my security,

shouldn’t mention that previous name because it wa

like a colonial name or something. So that was the las

day we went to that church. It sort of gave us a little b




of feeling a bit of out of place, because we didn’t know,

so we just thought names were names. So that didn’t

go well with us. We later came to understand it but at

that time we felt a bit shaken.

Desmond: When I moved in here about 1994, these

guys were jumping over the wall. You think this is not

really acceptable. If you live in a time like this peo-

ple will be very careful to mess around with a black

guy. People feel that the black government is on the

black guy’s side. It’s like pins and needles. You don’t

know if you are here, Arthur or Martha. It’s sad thatit’s like that. You kind of like live most of your life in

two places, one in the township where I grew up when

the family got moved out of here way back and that is

where you have your life. You come back to Sophia-

town at night.

Desmond: One of the nicest things was when one of

my neighbours started to greet us. He is a very nice

guy. It took us five years to greet, but he’s a nice per-

son. [Laughter] We have coffee and breakfast together.

We make jokes. I really appreciate him; he’s a very

nice person. So when he’s gone, I will check his yard,

feed his dogs, open the gate for the lady. We had to

build trust. I think the trust factor has also been lost

in a sense. So one’s got to build up a confidence again

of the people.

Desmond: I taught my kids about the history of this

place. You tell the children about the good things

about it, the now and the way forward. Obviously they

are going to create a new history. We hope that theystay around and start really living together the way

they should. It’s going to be very interesting to see

what they come up with.

Dave: Has anyone had any thoughts or experience

about how to move forward?

Desmond: It’s not my daughter’s business what hap-

pened and who did what. You tell them about now.

But my eldest daughter was invited to a friend’s house

for a sleepover. They were a nice family, but they made

her sleep on the floor. You don’t have to be sleeping

on the floor. You are not the maid or something. With-

in the space of six months we tried to create a good

relationship. Let us go over there and really see if we

can make a better relationship with those people. Can we create that? It’s very difficult, I think.

Mark: I think we could organise things. Get each

other’s numbers and have Sunday lunch or braai at

someone’s place. I’d like to see a Christmas party or

something. Just get on the streets at Christmas time,

have braais and . . .

Riva: I think we just need to get out of our own co-

coons and just get over ourselves and be the first to

walk across the road and say, “Hi, this is me; I liveacross the road.”

Carol: Where you can see each other. Just the walls

kind of make you afraid.

Riva: We used to live in Roodepoort in a very small

street. I think there was about ten houses on each

side, a cul-de-sac, and we used to visit across the road

and would watch each other’s cars when there were

parties going on. There were always people. We inter-

acted. That’s not the case any more. I think that is why we are in the situation we are in now. We run home

and close the door.

building a new south africa (excerpt)

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