Forced Removals
As neighbouring white working-class areas, such as Westdene and Newlands, developed adjacent to Sophiatown, the perception arose that the suburb was too close to white suburbia. From 1944 onwards, the Johannesburg City Council planned to move the black population out of the Western Areas, including Sophiatown. After the election victory of the National Party in 1948, relocation plans were debated at the level of national politics. Under the Immorality Amendment Act, No 21 of 1950, people of mixed races could not reside together, which made it possible for the government to segregate the different races.
When the removals scheme was promulgated, Sophiatown residents united to protest against the forced removals, creating the slogan "Ons dak nie, ons phola hier" (we won't move). Father Trevor Huddleston, Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph and Ruth First played an important role by becoming involved in the resistance. On 9 February 1955, 2 000 policemen, armed with handguns, rifles and clubs known as knobkierries, forcefully moved the black families of Sophiatown to Meadowlands, Soweto. Other ethnic groups were also moved: Coloured people moved to Eldorado Park in the south of Johannesburg; the Indian community moved to Lenasia; and the Chinese people moved to central Johannesburg. Over the next eight years Sophiatown was flattened and removed from the maps of Johannesburg.
Read more about this topic: Sophiatown, History
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