INTRO:

Apartheid forced removals are as much a part of South Africa’s narrative as Nelson Mandela
and Hendrik Verwoerd. The latter were the actors, the former the modus operandi. The story of
dispossession often centres upon places like Sophiatown, cultural melting pots which were
home to legends. But the story of Bosmont - a little known community in Johannesburg - has yet
to be told. Candice Nolan grew up there, but her roots streched beyond the railway tracks…..

SCRIPT

(virtual barber shop)

NARRATOR: A man walks into a barber shop...

(virtual barber shop)

NARRATOR: In 1950’s South Africa this was no joke….

1957 film footage (they hauled people out of trams in the morning out of bus queues and took
them up to the native commmissioners officer and some of the tests applied to tell a man he
was not coloured was to try to pass a comb through his hair and the comb stuck he was told he
was a kaffir other people who’s noses were abit flat were told you are not a coloured)

NARRATOR: Jimmy passed the pencil test but that was not good enough....

JIMMY (not white jimmy why: just because the comb didn’t get stuck, i’m coloured. Why am i not
white, tell me why am i not white)

NARRATOR: Sandra Laing was a white girl trapped in a brown skin…

(Sandra was already in her 20’s by the time she managed to get any form of legal identification
Wanting to be with petrus with whom she already had two children she applied for a so called
coloured id but her father didn’t want his then classified white daughter Who was once classified
black to be reclassified coloured)

NARRATOR: The term “coloured” was a coverall term for everyone who did not fit neatly into
either the white or black box....

WILMA doornfontein coloured (we always went to the end street park we even knew the parkie
the one who looked after the place and I remember must have been Probably 1954 or 1955
when I was about because I’m born in 1947 so we talking 7/8 years old this same parkie came
to my brother myself and my two sisters and we asked him why and he said because we’re
coloured and I remember going home and saying to my mother telling my mother that the man
had told us we can’t play in the park anymore and because we’re coloured what is coloured?
because remember 1953 is when the separate amenities and the group areas. That’s when it
started. What did your mom say? My mother probably just said agh you know let’s just leave it
because that is how most of our people probably reeling from this new thing and not knowing
how to deal with it so you never actually got an answer? No no I need to tell you a very funny
story after that I thought that coloured people are really not allowed to do anything so my father
buys this Old car and we living in albertville and we go up to the butcher in melville so you know
the melville hill and this old car is practically hogging the curb and I’m thinking, must be because
we’re coloured Laughs and not allowed to ride in because you’re a little girl between 7 and 8!
and this you not allowed here you not allowed there or whatever)

NARRATOR: In the social hieracy, coloureds were one wrung above black people. Absurdly, a
black person could be reclassified coloured but a coloured person could never become white.
For those who did, they had to cut all familial ties and live a lie for the rest of their lives....

Thabo Mbeki use african tm (Being part of all of these people, and in the knowledge that none
dares contest that assertion, I shall claim that - I am an African. Applause I have seen our country
torn asunder as these, all of whom are my people, engaged one another in a titanic battle, the one
to redress a wrong that had been caused by one to another and the other, to defend the
indefensible. I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another,
when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God
created all men and women in His image. )

NARRATOR: With these words, Thabo Mbeki heralded the passing of South Africa’s new
constitution. But it was too little, too late for Claudette. Her grandfather, Stoffel used his life
savings to build a home as a legacy for his children. The apartheid state stole it away…..

Claudette Loss (uhm so for me the way things were done then was it sjoe it’s hard Candice: can
you put a price on it do you think? If you could Claudette: on the property itself or the loss of the
heritage the candice yes claudette: the history in that area I don’t know I can’t say Our only
valuable is the memories that we have uhm if we talk about it but no money can be put into what
has been lost)

NARRATOR: Apartheid was really not rocket science. It was, simply put, a land grab by white
people. DF Malan, told his parliament “What we have in this bill before us is apartheid”. He was
referring to the Group Areas Act. This was the law they used to dispossess people like Oupa
Stoffel. The most amended piece of legislation, the Group Areas Act forced sales on a fixed
municipal value. If someone managed to sell their property on the open market, the Group
Areas Development Board took half of the proceeds. The state was willing to use force to get its
hands on prime real estate…..

(bob marley [Intro]

Exodus: Movement of Jah people! Oh-oh-oh, yea-eah!

[Verse 1]
Men and people will fight ya down (Tell me why!)
When ya see Jah light (Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Let me tell you if you're not wrong; (Then, why?)
Everything is all right
So we gonna walk - all right! - through de roads of creation:
We the generation (Tell me why!)
(Trod through great tribulation) trod through great tribulation

[Pre-Chorus]
Exodus, all right! Movement of Jah people
Oh, yeah! O-oo, yeah! All right!
Exodus: Movement of Jah people

[Chorus]
Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Uh! Open your eyes and look within:
Are you satisfied (with the life you're living)? Uh!
We know where we're going, uh!
We know where we're from
We're leaving Babylon
We're going to our Father land)

Ours was a forced exodus - kicked out of the promised land and left to wander on the very fringes of
society. The black workforce were banished to the South Western Townships, their shacks reduced to
rubble. Middle class residents of Albertville, faced a similar fate, although their homes were left
standing…..

(sophiatown song use)

Mix (As a young person you realise that something was happening with sophiatown they were
moving the people out of sophiatown and you got those song about meadownlands we not
going to ons dak nie ons phola hier with meadowlands. And so they were moving the people out
of sophiatown and then you just my dad and everybody else just got an instruction that you had
to install flush toilets you paid for it. Then most of our roads in albertville were sand roads which
became absolute Riverbeds when it rained we knew one another that you are from albertsville
or you are from coronationville put that way Because coronationville people you look at the
shoes the shoes are clean Because coronationville people you look at the shoes the shoes are
clean. We were in albertsville for about five years I must say about ja say about five years when
we heard the news that we must move from there again to a place this place was called
montelieu ...montelieu bosmont Thought where’s that any rate…but at the time we didn’t take it
very seriously but when it became serious was when they started tarring the roads and when
they started tarring we thought ay somethng must be happening here but when you look back
now it was all preparing for when they were going to take it away from us the white people
weren’t going to come and live there and their rates be taken to pay for those improvements we
paid for it)

(chimes fx)
(I’m driving in to fleurhof where my aunty claudette stays we are going to see her about her
grandfather and his house uhm which is the subject matter of our next podcast so we shoud be
coming in to fleurhof now stop sign here oh this is it street very quiet i’m the only car its rude to
hoot so i’m just going to use my phone quickly see if i cant call her and tell her i’m outside
phone gets out of car you can actually hear the wind door close weather change very suddenly
hello aunty c hello c i see you where you walkign around in this cold its like the weather just
changed and i was going to run like tomorrow and i said no i can never go run in like 13 degrees
no no no that can’t happen)

NARRATOR: Claudette is my mom’s cousin - their grandfather’s were brothers. While

researching my own great grandfather, I came across Oupa Stoffel’s estate file. Housed inside a
leather bound book was a treasure trove of information which would in all likelihood have died
with her parents…..

CLAUDETTE (move claudette no explain and then things changed but nobody as I say looking
at it through a childs eyes is No one explained everything we just saw that we were moving the
furniture’s going its leaving And uhm the water’s cut I remember we never had hot water
Where the furniture went they couldn’t take all the furniture so somehow they had to give away
furniture because you must remember it was a huge house and we had to move into a two
bedroom next to the Catholic Church in Rorich street Still nobody said anything we just moved)

NARRATOR: Claudette didn’t know it at the time, but her neighbourhood had been declared a
white group area in the same year she was born.….

Claudette (sweets claudette my fond memories was the big yard and the fruit trees that was in
that yard And the chicken run that we had the fowl run that we had uhm Uhm also and uhm my
grandmother we stealing her sweets that was a good we always laugh about it They ate the xxx
Wilsons and she would chas us around the house which was fairly big it was quite a big
property Uhm this old lady chasing us because we now stole her sweets)

NARRATOR: But it was only after her grandmother’s death in 1960 that the family were forced
to move. Claudette remembers the day her grandmother passed away.

CLAUDETTE (ellie dies I remember when she became ill because she died of a stroke And uhm
but when she got ill that night my mother was up it must have been late at night and as children
you’re hearing the commotion and then my mother carrying the potty because remember our
toilets were outside but the potty was mos under the bed So you don’t mos go out at night and
then we had the uhm we used to call it the kakaballie, the kind of pit toilet So we would keep a
potty under your bed for during the night and they were carrying up and down I think her tummy
must have been working and then she passed on and then we had the wake they called it the
wake just saw this coffin that morning when we woke up when we got up but as a child)

pause
Claudette (And thats how the adults explained it no ouma is sleeping and she’s going up to
heaven and uhm and okay and I remember I was picked up by my father To touch her forehead
which was ice cold that was I remembered candice but she looked like she was sleeping so
claudette hm hm ouma Ellie hm)

NARRATOR: I believe Ouma Ellie died of a broken heart, just nine years after her husband….

Jimmy old diedjimmy (Clears throat the whole objective their objective as far as we were
concerned they didn’t want to see us stabilised To grow as a unit as a community because we
were just being established people had built their own homes And and that is what gave people
some form of security that gave them something they had something because they had the
papers to show that they are the owners of this place clears throat and that is what many people
wanted and that is why when it became a reality That they are moving us there are many of the
older people who just … just dropped dead they died)

pause

NARRATOR: Jimmy obtained his PHd from an Afrikaans only university at the very height of
apartheid. He now works as an assessor in our courts..….

JIMMY (is there a law that says no you can’t live here you must live there you can’t live there yo
must live over there is there a law that says that I said I don’t know about such a law if there is
such a law Candice: they say law is an ass so basically? It was an ass it was it really was but i
couldnt say that to them because i would have landed myself where i wouldnt want to be.)

NARRATOR: Jimmy was living in Albertville at the time it was declared a white group area. He
was much older than Claudette, and remembers being shunted from pillar to post before finally
being allocated a plot of land in Bosmont….

JIMMY (we lived in morkle street now morkel street was too close to the white area And uh well
because we didn’t have a place yet they told us we will have to move)

Hendrik Verwoerd will go down in the annals of history as the architect of apartheid….
Verwoerd (our policy is one which is called by an afrikaans word apartheid and i’m afraid
that has been misunderstood so often it could just as easily be described as a policy of
good neighbourliness)

NARRATOR: But this good neighbourliness was only skin deep….

UPSOUND: (you know what was so sad also for me a personal friend of mine he was coloured
his wife was black In 1972 when they had to leave his wife couldn’t go with him and they had
three little kids unfortunately all the kids were black so the kids had to go with the mother to
Langa that’s a black township and he went to Mitchells plain. And that’s what the government
actually did to people separate them froM their families he couldn’t see his wife if he wanted to
see his wife, his gotta go to the police station apply for a permit and they would give him a
permit every three months for two hours only he didn’t see his children grow up. And that’s what
apartheid did not only to district six but throughout south africa. People were practically kicked
out of their homes because of the colour of their skin)

UPSOUND: (aparthate pause apartheid was an evil and an ugly system and it changed people
It changed families it broke families it made people base their worth their self worth and who you
were on how you looked.)

NARRATOR: Claudette’s dad and his siblings were forced to sign away their birthright….

Claudette consent split gadb (consent split gadb: candice: so how do you think they must have
felt having to sign consent for this when they knew It was a lie they must have seen? Claudette:
terrible and its a pity now ugh uh it split the family Because uncle alfie moved to Cape Town
that’s the second eldest brother and aunty olga one of the sisters also moved to Cape Town)

NARRATOR: Greed. Sickening greed. The paper trail leading up to the sale shows the lengths
they were willing to go to carry out their grand plan....

(Candice: i’m just trying to find the document I’m just trying to find the valuation from the lawyer
Sorry that’s just the consent forms hmmmmm transfer of the property to the group areas
development board Just looking for the valuation thingy Just bear with me aunty c. Claudette:
hm is that the one with the splitting The amount that the house was up for Candice yesss
Claudette: very sad Candice like what it was valued at at the time of Oupa stoffel Claudette: and
there was this how many square metres jaaaaa Candice; the group areas development board it
says here transfer of the affected property to the group areas development board lots number
870 And 871 albertville Johannesburg Claudette: can you see its two lots hm claudette: you see
Candice: two plots of land Claudette two plots candice uhm Maybe its after this consent form
things alot of the documentation is written in Afrikaans Claudette: hm Candice: jaaaa
I govan Patel a duly admitted conveyancee do hereby certify the lots were transferred from the
estate of the late Alphina Louisa uhm uh renecke to the group area development board on 15
august 1961 And is held by it under deed of transfer number 5401/1961)

NARRATOR: In Ouma Ellie’s will she leaves the property to her children. But the apartheid
government was slick. In a catch-all amendment to the Group Areas Act, they were able to force
sales on even those properties acquired before the act. Seven months after Ouma Ellie had
passed away, Zayed Gamiet writes to the Master of the Supreme Court, Pretoria. The letter is
dated 19 March 1961….

Letter gabd year born claudette (candice reads Owing to the fact that Albertville Township was
proclaimed a proposed White Group Area in August 1956 aside: the year you were born, under
the jurisdiction of the Group Areas Development Board it is impossible to dispose of properties
in the township other than to the board as no white persons are prepared to purchase properties
owing to the fact that the area has only been proposed as a White Group Area and will only
become such an area in an unspecified future time. in the circumstances the price of R2800 is a
reasonable one and you are requested to consent to the sale of the property)

NARRATOR: I visited the property recently, the original building is still standing. It’s hard to
imagine a property like this going for less than a quarter of a million Rand in today’s money….

Candice (valuation today: Right next to albertville park must have been a very big plot indeed
because it looks like its been Subdivided into well we have a 28a and we have a 28b and I’m
just I’m walking along the path clears throat right next to the house wind cars footsteps I think
this is the yard or the back portion walks dog barks startle Bark barb bark bark bark bark barks
someone’s not happy to see me dogs ambiant sound)

NARRATOR: Oupa Stoffel became the titleholder of the property on 9 June 1944. He paid 900
pounds sterling - roughly 20 thousand pounds in today’s money. It’s simply ridiculous that this
same property should depreciate in value by 50 percent a mere ten years later. The smoking
gun is this sworn appraisement dated 28 December 1953. It came soon after Oupa Stoffel’s
death but before the neighbourhood was declared a white group area….

(conditions poor claudette: it was uh a total floor area approximately 13000 sorry 1300 square
feet claudette: now can you imagine how big was it I mean this is 900 You saw this size its three
now can you imagine how bit that was it was two properties candice: 13 woah ok Approximate
total verandah area 160 square feet claudette hm So it was quite a big Claudette: very big
house Candice: walls brick claudette hmmmmm roof iron, ceilings asbestos floors part
granolithic part wood Air conditioning nil heating nil lighting electric lifts nil staircases nil fire
escapes nil stoves coal Claudette hmmm Hot water system coal stove sanitation sewerage
water supply municipal approximate age of building 20 years; condition of building: poor Other
buildings Claudette: that was not true …the poor condition of the building was never it’s still
standing The house is still standing solid as a rock all the homes in albertsville were solid
you can speak to anyone aunty thelma whoever moved from er er wilma Will have excellent
memory she will tell you the condition of the homes when we left where do you think those
boere would move into poor condition they went on like its a shack it was broken down and
things like that They wouldn’t have moved into that houses so we got nothing next to nothing for
those ho if you look at it now we got next to nothing for those houses candice: because of this
Claudette: that was how much was it 900 today )

NARRATOR:The stench of corruption hung thick. And the Group Areas Development Board
was a fine example. The board would be laughing all the way to the bank after selling the
houses at market value. Even white industrialists got caught up in the crazed land grab as the
gravy train pushed steadily on. The board had to create neighbourhoods for the displaced
coloured people. Most of the residents of Albertville were relocated to a dusty expanse in the
middle of an industrial belt. It had been zoned as industrial land, before the government took it
off the hands of its previous landowners. There was no willing buyer willing seller principle at
play there either.…..
Wilma bosmont move (but so moving from albertville for me was very traumatic we lived
albertville was as I said it was it was maybe i’m Glamorising but for me as a child it was a safe
haven it was a community that you felt safe in that fed all your needs You know it was also
almost like a farm so you would walk through the grass you would celebrate the change of
seasons coming to bosmont for me was this before and you must know when we moved there
were no trees and gardens people must still develop it I I I I just found it so Dry and dusty and
as much as then my dad built this big four bedroom home beautiful home i always mourned the
fact that we had to leave that place to come and live here with no choice in the matter)

NARRATOR: But the edifice of grand apartheid was set to crumble at last. Stevie Wonder called
it back in 1985...

(it’s wrong apartheid

The wretchedness of Satan's wrath

Will come to seize you at last
'cause even he frowns upon the deeds you are doing
And you know deep in your heart
You've no covenant with God
'cause he would never countenance people abusing

You know apartheid's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

Like slavery was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Like the holocaust was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Apartheid is wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong
It's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

The pain you cause in God's name

Points only to yourself to blame
For the negative karma you will be receiving
'cause when people are oppressed
With atrocities that test
The future of all mankind we, the world won't stand seeing

You know apartheid's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

Like slavery was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Like the holocaust was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Apartheid is wrong (Qha), it's wrong (Qha), wrong
It's wrong (Qha), it's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

NARRATOR: The democratic government was unable to right the wrong...

(Wilma: they did pay They did pay in albertville they only paid for your land everybody got 40
000 my dad got 40 000 With what my mom always called a half a house it was two bedrooms
and a kitchen and a little dining room aunty thelma them my uncle Manny them with all their big
homes would have got 40 000...It was 40 000 rand because I know we got it was here in the
latter years I think it was in the 1990’s past 1994)

NARRATOR: Wilma still feels bitter when she thinks of Albertsville….

Wilma (uprooting wilma I resented it terribly i still do because now when I go back to Albertville
(hadedas today albertville) there are black people and coloured people living there what was it
all about?!)

You know apartheid's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

Like slavery was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Like the holocaust was wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Apartheid is wrong (Qha), it's wrong (Qha), wrong
It's wrong (Qha), it's wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)
Wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha), wrong (Qha)

ENDS