1947–1950

Johannesburg was in the throes of the worst housing shortage it had ever known. Public as well as private house-building had ground to a halt, strangled by material shortages and War Measures. Newcomers to the city sought desperately for any sort of accommodation. The lucky and the early arrivals had found rooms for rent in township family homes, on a supposedly ‘temporary’ basis, only for both tenant and landlord to discover that ‘temporary’ would, in time, become permanent, and single rooms become homes for entire families.

Municipal regulations prohibiting sub-letting fell into disuse and were bypassed with impunity. Two-and three-roomed houses were split and split again to accommodate two or three families or dozens of lodgers. Single rooms were, in turn, divided by makeshift curtains and hessian partitions. But nothing could relieve the growing pressure for accommodation.

Conditions of life in the townships declined. In freehold areas like Sophiatown and Alexandra, where all pretence of local authority restraint had collapsed, homes were being ‘converted’ down. Front porches were being enclosed in hardboard or corrugated iron to create additional rooms; rear annexes of small rooms were being added unplanned, until all backyard space had been eaten up.

Overcrowding became chronic. Without any growth in essential services, public health and sanitation standards plummeted, crime and vandalism soared. Local authorities went through the motions of planning but built no new houses. Township Advisory Boards protested and proposed action but had no power to act. Everyone who knew the townships sensed that tensions were reaching breaking point.

The district committee received regular inside information about the crisis from Mofutsanyana, who was a member of the Orlando Advisory Board (now a major part of Soweto). Since Hilda had been elected to the City Council in 1944 an unholy alliance of Labour and Ratepayer members (the UP in municipal disguise) had kept her off the council's important Housing and Native Affairs committees. But she was entitled as of right to attend their sessions, where council policy was really being made. She amplified Mofutsanyana's reports with inside information about the wheelings and dealings between government and the city council and about what the township politicians were thinking and doing. They provided the background information for the district committee's policy as the housing crisis developed.