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Auction #114 begins on 11 Apr 2024

Forced Removals Document

Survey of the Western Areas of Johannesburg (1950)

Published: City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg,

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Non-European Affairs Department, City of Johannesburg, 1950, ex-library, non-loan reference section, usual stamps & labels, survey in spring-loaded file with boards, map, summary of report on survey (27 pages), introduction, Sophiatown and Martindale, Newclare, Western Native Township, Albertville, Natives, Coloureds, Indians, Chinese, survey (143 pages), appendix (27 pages), early history of Sophiatown, Newclare, Martindale and Albertville, also blank Family Card & Stand Card (to be filled out in survey), numerous tables, 255 x 345mm, condition : good.

The survey is part of the Council's £10,000,000 scheme to remove all Natives from Western Native Township, Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare to the Orlando/Pimville area. In all, according to statistics about twelve months old, 20,300 families or about 100,000 Natives will have to be moved.'

Rand Daily Mail, 13th June, 1950

The Non-European Affairs Department of the Johannesburg City Council in 1950 conducted a Survey of the Western Areas, which included Martindale and Sophiatown, Newclare, Albertville and the Western Native Township.

This survey is part of the ' Western Areas Scheme* ' for the removal of the Non-Europeans from the Western Areas of Johannesburg and had been amended several times since it was first mooted in 1937, the latest amendment having been drafted in 1944. After Riots in the Western Areas over 1949/50, a Ministerial conference decided that a survey of the areas was urgently required for further 'planning'. The forced removal of the residents of Sophiatown began on 9 February 1955 under the Western Areas Removal Scheme

The City of Johannesburg established new townships to the Southwest (SOWETO-SOuth WEst TOwnships) for Africans evicted from the Western Areas of Johannesburg.

[*Scheme A: Removal of Whole Population, Scheme B: Moving Tenants & Sub-Tenants only, Scheme C: Moving Overcrowded Families,Scheme D: Moving Non-Europeans from Sophiatown and Martindale.]


This document explains the context, the mechanics and the challenges, in municipal-speak and without emotion, of the intended forced removal of a vast number of families to essentially barren veld. It gives the scope of the task ahead and what has to be done in the creation of The Modern South African Tragedy. If there is such a thing as the banality of evil then this is it.

  • Overall Condition: good
  • Size: 255 x 345mm


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