Relocation

• 1955: Tomlinson Report
• Tomlinson Report

  • Believed the economic development of the former reserves had to be at the heart of apartheid
  • Advocated for major funding for rural industries
  • Believed agricultural plots had become too small and migrant labour undermined agriculture
• Verwoerd rejected the Tomlinson Report recommendations
• Verwoerd's view

  The 'Bantu' should develop at 'their own pace'
• Investment was well under the recommended level from the Tomlinson Report
• Sophiatown: Planned removal in 1950

  Within 6 years it was largely gone


  Housed nearly 60,000 people including former ANC members

  Easy target for nationalists
• Durban: 1951 450,000

  1/3 Indian, 1/3 African, 1/3 White

  Indians owned much private property such as Cato Manor and lend it to African tenants 


  1949: African people attacked Indians who were exploiting them, 142 were killed and over 1000 were injured

  1965: shacks largely removed from Cato Manor and thousands of Africans were sent to townships
• District Six: 60,000 forcibly removed and resettled on the distant Cape Flaunt in 1966


  It was previously a lively community with many cultures and music but it became a symbol for the destructive nature of apartheid
• 1959: Cato Manor riots


  This forced removal sparked the Cato Manor riots of June 1959, and six months later, the massacre of nine policemen. However, there was another reason for tension in the area that resulted in the 1959 Cato Manor riots- the question of who had the right to brew and sell the low-alcohol sorghum beer, or utshwala. The riots in Cato Manor began on 17 June 1959, when a demonstration of African women forced their way into a beer hall, destroying beer and drinking utensils and beating men who were drinking there.
• The government was keen to keep cities as predominantly white spaces as the influx of migrants was too large
• Informal shack settlements were established and areas outside cities 'townships' were given to migrants
• The biggest township was Soweto
• By 1980, Soweto housed around one million people
• Townships were not planned like cities so they lacked basic amenities such as water supply, sewerage systems, electricity and roads