Port Elizabeth has experienced phenomenal population growth spurts on a two occasions: first the Afrikaner influx and relocation from the platteland and then there was the migration of the Blacks. The consequences of unbridled migration for both communities were catastrophic in terms of nutrition, accommodation and general living conditions. Being English speaking and white to boot, I was blissfully unaware of the devastation, havoc and suffering that this enormous influx created until much later in life.
In 1904, immediately after the Anglo Boer War, the Afrikaner was a scare commodity in Port Elizabeth. Representing roughly 3.9% of the white population, they were virtually a ghost community lacking Afrikaans schools and churches. By 1960, this situation had been reversed with the Afrikaans schools and churches – numbering 13 NG churches – being operational.
The focus of this blog is white poverty as a consequence of over-rapid population growth, lack of education and marginalisation.
Main picture: Demolishing slum dwelling in Korsten in 1903
Number of Afrikaans speakers
During the 19th century there were only a handful of Afrikaans speakers in Port Elizabeth. In 1849, an Address Directory of the inhabitants was published in which the names of no more than twenty Dutch-speakers were listed. The occupations that they held were, amongst other things, that of clerk, shopkeeper, wagon blacksmith and merchant.
From the data, it is clear that before the end of the 19th century, there was only a small infusion [insypeling] of Afrikaners into Port Eizabeth. Yet the poverty among rural Afrikaners had already begun to assume alarming proportions by the end of the 19th century. However these impoverishing conditions did not yet assume crisis proportions that would drive the Afrikaner farmers of the interior of the Eastern Cape into Port Elizabeth in large numbers. But by the end of the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20th century, several new factors were responsible for the cityward [stadwaartse] migration of the Afrikaner. The rinderpest of 1896 comes to mind. According my family’s records, my grandfather was also devastated by this outbreak and was rendered insolvent.
Incipient influx
The aftermath of the Second Boer War, or Anglo Boer War to the English speaker, livestock losses and reduced incomes destroyed farmers. In addition, debilitating droughts characterised this period. Thus, in the economic sphere, disruption set in and this largely intensified the impoverishment process in the countryside and significantly increased the relocation to the cities. What the relocation to the cities meant for the Afrikaners, the Boer War and its aftermath were thus watershed events.
By 1904, the number of Afrikaans-speaking people in Port Elizabeth, including the outskirts, was approximately 900. This meant that of Port Elizabeth’s White population of 22 873, only 3.9% were Afrikaans-speaking. The influx of Afrikaners was therefore relatively meagre up to this point.
The struggle to remain permanently in Port Elizabeth must have placed appalling demands on those few hundred Afrikaans speakers because by 1904 they did not possess a cohesive community gees or spirit. It was as if they were cast into an unknown void with no plan or direction. Most lacked a formal education, could not communicate in the lingua franca, which was English, nor did they possess any formal skills. Their spoken language, a pidgin form of Dutch, was not the official language, which to them was unintelligible and despised, by many of these uneducated masses. What little schooling they did receive, was in a foreign language known as Dutch. My maternal grandmother, who was Afrikaans and only spoke Afrikaans and Xhosa, barely understood what her school teacher was saying and never learnt the spelling.
Fears of subtle Anglicisation
H.O. Terblanche strongly contends that these Afrikaner families found themselves in a city where the English spirit and influences were dominant in every way and as such, they were exposed to an Anglicization process [verengelsingsproses blootgestel] albeit subtle. Not only was the cosmopolitan city milieu alien to them in terms of morals, habits, and views on life [lewensbeskouings], but they were also treated like strangers. There was no question of equity in the language and cultural sphere. Because their Afrikaner identity was threatened, Terblanche propounded that the danger of popular bewilderment or confusion [volksverwildering] was high.
Terblanche might not have openly conceded it but was he not being hypocritical in that the Afrikaner themselves would treat the Blacks with the same disdain with which he probably correctly alluded to the Englishman’s behaviour?
Fatal consequences?
This cityward influx of impoverished Afrikaners in 1911 was viewed by Hofmeyer as a situation that had fatal consequences for the Afrikaner people. Many in authority raised the battle cry “back to the land,” – “terug na die land” – but the Afrikaner in the city had come to stay. Rev. Hofmeyr’s and others’ fears did not materialise, because in the city the Afrikaner mostly maintained himself in his ecclesiastical and spiritual bubble. Such deep religious convictions, deeply reflected the strength and depth of their religious convictions which until the late 20th century was deeply imbued within their volk.
At this stage nine out of every ten families who moved into Port Elizabeth, settled in the city due to poverty as a consequence of some natural disaster. Confounding the problem was that often the breadwinner was not trained in any trade and thus it was difficult to find a paying job in Port Elizabeth. On the other hand, according to the annual Port Elizabeth directory clearly shows that the English men all possessed some trade. Hence unemployment was a problem of no small magnitude and still there was a continuous influx of needy families. Many young people found employment on the railways, while a number also worked on the trams. Because of the abject [naakte] poverty, many children and young girls found employment in the factories especially the shoe industry. Here they at best worked on the shopfloor for a meagre wage.
Crash in ostrich feather prices
After the price of ostrich feathers fell in 1913 and the outbreak of war in 1914, the ostrich feather market collapsed completely. Hundreds of farmers in Oudtshoorn and surrounding districts were financially ruined by this and had to leave their farms. Yet another cohort of unemployed headed to Port Elizabeth.
Agricultural and commercial activities in the countryside were severely disrupted by the economic depression that would follow the peace in 1918. In addition, crippling, periodic droughts and devastating floods also plagued the rural areas. This resulted in many Afrikaners leaving the Eastern Cape interior and having to find a place to live elsewhere. The industrial awakening that occurred after the war resulted in Port Elizabeth becoming a factory city in addition to being a trading city and also a port city. From the Liverpool of South Africa, Port Elizabeth was renamed the Detroit of South Africa In the urban centres, there was therefore a great demand for labourers and entry level employees after 1918.
After it had been announced from the pulpit one Sunday that the Inspector of White Labour would visit the city in connection with the provision of work to the poor in the forest plantations, presumably in the Tsitsikamma region, the names of 65 Afrikaner families were submitted to the rectory.
Of the approximately 550 Afrikaner children in the day schools, no more than a dozen had the opportunity to advance beyond standards IV and V. The majority had already left school before standard IV. In the “free school” Mackay, where free education was offered to needy pupils, 85% of the pupils were Afrikaans-speaking.
For the Afrikaner community in Port Elizabeth, 1917 was, by all indications, a year of crisis. The poor white issue in Port Elizabeth took on appalling proportions in that year, as can be seen from the following data provided by Rev. Stegmann: Out of 34 applications submitted to the school board for free education, 25 were Afrikaans speakers and at least 30 Afrikaner families were compelled to occupy single rooms.
Status in 1918
In 1918, the approximately 4,000 Afrikaners in Port Elizabeth made up 17.1% of the total White population of the city. According to a Presbyterian Commission report, in 1918 there were around 100 poor white households in Port Elizabeth. That report lists the condition as serious.
In response to the fact that so many poor people from the outlying districts had already taken up residence in Port Elizabeth, the Presbytery of Graaff-Reinet in October 1920 accepted a proposal in which support was granted to the General Poor Care Commission “in its efforts to use the labour of impoverished whites in the new harbour works at Port Elizabeth“. By 1920 the number of siele [total of avowed members, baptised member and unbaptised members of the N.G. Kerk] had already increased to 3,360 and the number of members [ those avowed or bylydende] was 1,323. See addendum. According to Rev. Stegmann 95% of the members belonged to the labouring class.
The influx of impoverished Afrikaner families to Port Elizabeth was so overwhelming that by the end of 1921 there were around 135 families who did not own a house but had to live in rooms or backyards. During 1921 the number of new settlers increased to a greater extent than ever before. Only a few families left the city, while 136 new families (about 500 souls) took up residence in Port Elizabeth.
This influx continued unabated throughout 1922 and Port Elizabeth continued to serve as a refuge for those who were invariably extremely destitute. The unemployment issue has assumed severe and ever-larger proportions. Because of the utter poverty and the housing shortage, the number of households, which were forced to take up residence in rooms or backyards, rose to 150 in 1922 – compared to the 30 families of 1917.
Classification of Afrikaners
According to the Rev. F.W. Liebenberg, the 8,500 Afrikaners in Port Elizabeth did not form a homogeneous community. Liebenberg highlighted this by referring to the great class differences in the Afrikaner community. According to him, two distinct classes of the Afrikaner people could be distinguished, namely the progressive class and the “sinking class”. The class difference revealed itself especially in the spiritual, moral and material realm. The problem therefore often arose that this so-called “sinking” portion of the Afrikaner people, because of the poor socio-economic conditions that characterised them, caused them to meet specially to discuss disciplinary measures to be taken against them.
The social conditions in a large part of the congregation were demoralizing and even ominous. Three, four, even five families, often with grown daughters and sons, were forced to live together in one dwelling but in separate rooms. Conditions in Municipal housing were also appalling; especially because of the inability of the municipal authorities to provide the impoverished White families with adequate and proper housing. Rev. Liebenberg commented on this in 1926 as follows: “In New Brighton and Lake View, provisions were made for coloureds and kaffirs, … but for the poor whites today no provisions have been made.“
Conditions can be likened to latter day squatter camps
Because of the unemployment issue and the housing shortage, in 1927, Rev. Liebenberg appealed to the church councils of the surrounding Eastern Cape congregations to warn their members not to move to Port Elizabeth, if they were not trained in some trade. Later in 1927, Rev. Liebenberg once again commented on the conditions in Port Elizabeth as follows: “The city is now as full of Afrikaners as never before. Some are looking for work, others are looking for housing. Housing is so rare that our people simply move into zinc [corrugated iron] buildings in backyards, others move into rooms made of the boards of coffins, in which four or five families live in one house. It cannot continue like this for our Church , because if there is something that will keep the Afrikaner above the maelstrom of the world, then it is religion”. This phenomenon can be likened to current situation in South Africa of creating squatter camps around the periphery of the major towns as the authorities are unable to cope with housing the constant influx of migrants many of them from neighbouring countries.
Living wages for unskilled whites
The claim was therefore rightly made that no other city in South Africa had experienced such a rapid increase of Afrikaners as Port Elizabeth. According to statements from experienced officials, the economic policy of General Hertzog’s Pact Government, which came to power in 1924, contributed to the fact that the migration of Afrikaners to the cities increased significantly.
In the years 1920-1924 there was large-scale unemployment, especially among White youth. To combat the conditions of poverty and unemployment, Gen. Hertzog consciously encouraged the industrialization of South Africa. His “civilised labour policy” after 1924 led to the large-scale employment at “living”[betalende] wages of unskilled White labourers on the railways and dock works, factories and civil service. The government’s economic policy not only provided job opportunities for thousands of impoverished and unemployed Afrikaners, but it also accelerated the migration of Afrikaners to the cities.
The depression years
The oppressive years of nationwide economic depression (1930-1933) and the appalling drought of 1933 brought the rural impoverishment to a peak and it did leave its mark thoroughly also on Port Elizabeth. Housing shortages reached crisis proportions. Since the drought year of 1927 and the depression years of 1932-33, hordes of impoverished Afrikaner families settled in Kensington, Sydenham, North End, Korsten and Sidwell, with the saying “the rural families initially settled in the gate of the city, which the city connected with the countryside…”
Slum conditions
As was the case in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the impoverished rural families in Port Elizabeth also moved into unfavourable, densely populated neighbourhoods, where they lived in slum conditions. They settled in these neighbourhoods to be close to the industries and factories. At first it was therefore almost predominantly the Afrikaans speakers who were concentrated in the poorer suburbs and neighbourhoods in Port Elizabeth, where “they practically lived as closed communities who had little or no social contact with their English-speaking city dwellers. This isolation in the social area and this ecclesiastical organization of ever-increasing numbers was also their main salvation as Afrikaners.”
Conditions in Korsten
A large percentage of the impoverished rural settlers initially settled outside the then municipal boundaries of Port Elizabeth; among other locations it was in the non-urban area of Korsten, which was then not under the management of the local municipal authority. Kempston Road was at the time the northern municipal boundary line. Situated on a barren hill, Korsten had by 1931 accommodated 3,710 whites and more than 10,000 non-whites.
The living conditions was horrendous. There were no streets, no water reticulation, no electricity, no street lighting, no sanitation and no municipal services of any kind whatsoever. By way of illustration the following can be mentioned: “On the edge of the municipal boundary (about 400 yards away) the city council sold water at 10/- for 1,000 gallons. Their water riders fetch it and sell it at 1/6 (for the nearest houses) to 2/6 (for the furthest) per barrel of 40-50 gallons.” In this regard, Dr. F. J. Minnaar, pastor of Port Elizabeth North, also stated the following: “The water was obtained at the time by donkey cart with a barrel from Sydenham, in Ambrose Street. A line of 100-150 carts per day was visible between Sidwell and Ambrose Street.“
Public works projects
Poverty was brought to a climax by the depression of 1932. Unemployment has taken on worrying proportions. Public works “Onderstadswerke” were undertaken where unemployed Whites could earn the meagre wages of 5/- per day working with a pick and shovel. One of these projects was the building of a proper road p Cooper’s Kloof. Rev. J.T. Martens, pastor of the N.G. Mother Congregation, donated £150 from his own pocket to those in need during 1932. Rev. Minnaar has the following description of a pathetic protest march of the unemployed through the streets held in the depression years: “The unemployed even held a demonstration march; in front of a coffin, carried by a few men and followed by a long procession. Close behind the coffin wearing a black hat, a present elder followed.”
Conditions of need and misery worsened to such an extent that the city council had to devise plans to house about 500 of the White unemployed in tents on the exhibition grounds, but it was futile. And still the influx of impoverished Afrikaner families continued unabated.
The Carnegie Commission
On becoming aware of the plight of the poor whites in South Africa, the Carnegie Corporation in America funded a study which investigated this phenomenon. They were primarily attracted to this problem as they drew a comparison with the white poverty in the deep south of the USA. Ultimately a report entitled “The Poor White Problem in South Africa: Report of the Carnegie Commission” was produced in 1932. Numerous recommendations about segregation were propagated. Some people have argued that this report would later serve as a blueprint for Apartheid.
According to Rev. E. G. Malherbe, a. member of the Carnegie Commission, in 1932 there were already 5,000 poor whites in Port Elizabeth, the largest concentration of poor whites in South Africa. Following this, a local English daily made the following telling comment: “To become a dumping ground for poor whites is hardly in keeping with the aspirations of the city and we suggest that the matter might appropriately form the subject of a special investigation.“
The ongoing influx of impoverished Afrikaner families not only placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of the N.G. Church, but in particular contributed to the problems of the local authority; especially regarding housing and employment. The following editorial comment underlined the emergency situation that prevailed in the early thirties: “Those people who are wholly dependent on local charity include a very large proportion who have migrated to the city from the rural areas. As a community, we have , in common humanity, assumed the charge of feeding and housing them, and wherever possible, providing them with work. But this state of affairs cannot go on. In the end the Central Government will be compelled to take some practical interest in the subject – either that, or they are prepared to stand aside and watch men, women and children starving in their sight.”
Towards the end of the thirties, Port Elizabeth exhibited the most unfavourable socio-economic conditions of South Africa’s major urban centres. From official statistics from 1937, in connection with the slums of Port Elizabeth, it appeared that 98% of the slum dwellers were Afrikaners who had flowed into the city from the countryside. According to a school board survey from 1938, 53 percent of the pupils of the Piet Retief Primary School suffered from poor nutrition and malnutrition was rife: “which means that conditions at this school were worse than in practically any coloured school“.
Home ownership
According to a survey in 1939, in Port Elizabeth only one-fifth of total number of 1,618 households owned their own property or acquired the house under the hire purchase system. The rest (four-fifths) did not own their own house and consequently paid unproductive house rent. This survey table speaks volumes, because it clearly showed the extent to which the White population of Port Elizabeth was still in the grip of poverty and were trapped by unscrupulous property speculators.
Conditions in Sidwell
In Sidwell, where a large percentage of the Afrikaans-speaking rural dwellers settled, shocking neighbourhood conditions prevailed in the 1940s. Dr. H.E. van Zyl, headmaster of the Piet Retief Primary School, expressed himself in a memorandum as follows: “No monkey can venture without risk along these stinking tracks – the so-called streets of Sidwell. Streams of foul water in the streets ran in all directions, in some cases streams 373 yards long. In Wright Street is a green, slimy, stinking swamp. These so-called streets of Sidwell are really footpaths and tracks which abound in potholes, craters and loose stones; soaked in and drenched with slop, they are the accumulation centres of dirt and flies dreadful and dangerous. Besides being a menace, it certainly is a serious danger to public health and really is no credit to our city.“
In 1941, Sidwell already had more than 6,000 White residents and compounding it, the municipal services were deplorable. According to Rev. Van Zyl everything was broken and decrepit. Medical help and facilities were beyond the reach of a great deal of the needy residents; in the social sphere there was misery and the level of need for help and guidance was frightening. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds, the Church curtailed its assistance and the Piet Retief Primary School also had to step in and help together with the Church.
Poverty took on huge proportions in Sidwell. In 1940, 815 enrolled pupils, the vast majority of whom were Afrikaans-speaking, attended the Piet Retief Primary School. Of that number, there were more than 600 who were too poor to pay for their school books which were, at that stage, not a free issue but had to be purchased.
Since July 1942, approximately 200 of the neediest pupils were fed at the school every day. The following statement by Rev. Van Zyl is therefore by no means an exaggeration: “Of all the poor areas in our country, I do not think there is one where the problems are as acute, and of such magnitude, as in Sidwell.“
Effect upon other groups
Whilst the Afrikaner did undoubtedly suffer the most amongst the whites from oppressive poverty, at least 10% of the impoverished were in fact English speaking. When interviewing the ex-school secretary of my High School, Alexander Road High School, she recounted a tale of deprivation living as a youth in a single room with her mother in Sidwell. Furthermore she could not recall her mother ever having a job. That resulted in their relying upon charity for everything.
It should also be noted that living conditions of the Afrikaners’ fellow Black residents in Korsten were in all material aspects as dismal and poverty stricken as those of the Afrikaner. This point was not belaboured in this blog because the focus was on the deplorable conditions afflicting the Afrikaner.
Motor industry
The saviour of the Afrikaner was undoubtedly the motor industry. After the establishment of General Motors and Ford assembly plants in Port Eliazbeth in the 1920s, the unemployed Afrikaner was employed there in droves but only at the lowest level of manual labour in these plants. At this stage, the supervisors were predominantly English speaking. This did not reflect discrimination but rather their lack of education and skills.
After two decades this modus operandi was modified. As the Afrikaner gained skills and self-assurance in an industrial environment, they were promoted into supervisory roles. Their former position at these low levels was taken by the Blacks. Only after the Americans imposed the Sullivan Codes during the 1970s were these Blacks promoted into the supervisory ranks in numbers.
Addendums
Understanding the difference between “sieltal” and “lede”
When referring to their number of members, the N.G. Kerk differentiates between “sieletal” and “Lede” .
According to Johan Grobler, the three sister churches, of which NGK is one, all have “levels” of members.
- Avowed members (Belydende lidmate) – Adults that were educated in church matters and confessed their faith in public. (Normally between 16 to 18, but also as an older person)
- Baptised members (Dooplidmate) – Children, young adults and rarely adults that have been baptised as babies (or at any other time), but have not yet confessed their faith
- Unbaptised babies, but children of avowed members.
So “aantal lede” will refer only to avowed members, but “sieletal” will refer to all three categories combined.
Source
Die Trek van die Afrikaner na Port Elizabeth by H.O Terblanche, University of Port Elizabeth