Tokoza, South Africa

Description

Thokoza is a township in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. Thokoza is at the location of the now defunct Palmietfontein Airport. It is situated south east of Alberton, adjacent to Katlehong. Thokoza was the first black township which was established in the East Rand. During the early 1990s Thokoza was the middle of unrest between the supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), rival party of the African National Congress (ANC).HistoryIn 1955, the Germiston and Alberton municipalities swapped land and the latter received part of the land that made up the Natalspruit area, which was needed to form a new black township. From 1958-59, the Alberton municipality begun to develop a new township on the Palmietfontein section. Each plot was to be serviced with a basic water and sewerage infrastructure, with the building of a one bedroom shack and later one, two or three bedroom houses. The new township would be called Thokoza (place of peace). By 1961 all black residents of locations within the Alberton municipality had been moved to the new township after a registration process and the issuing of plot locations.All this was in aid of carrying out the introduction of the Apartheid governments Native (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act, which controlled the movement of the black population in the country to certain areas of work and residence. Financially, municipalities were aided in this process by the enactment of two new laws in the 1950s. Bantu Building Workers' Act (1950) which allowed black workers, on low wages, to build the houses and infrastructure and the Bantu Services Levy Act (1952) which paid for the new building work by levying the wages of black employees in the country.