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The Destruction of Sophiatown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

In 1955 the South African Government began to demolish a black freehold suburb in Johannesburg, and to relocate its inhabitants in a state-controlled township. Resistance to these moves by the leading black political organisation of the time, the African National Congress (A.N.C.), was short-lived and unsuccessful. Despite its abortive nature, the attempt to oppose the destruction of Sophiatown was historically significant for several reasons.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

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page 131 note 4 The World, 27 July 1957.

page 131 note 5 Treason Trial Record, p. 7492.

page 132 note 1 Both Vundla and Resha had trade-union experience with some of the most underprivileged members of the workforce, the migrant mine-workers. Neither was wealthy, even in relative terms. Vundla, in his capacity as an Advisory Board member, used to keep ‘open house’, so that all those with any kind of difficulty or problem could visit him. Also, though in a rather different way from Resha, Vundla had certain contacts with the gangster world, and in later years was to play an important arbitration rôle in their internecine disputes.