Lenasia, Soweto

Hundreds of people braved the cold weather to attend the Eidgah. The Eidgah was hosted next to the Mohammadiyya Qadriyya Majid at the Nirvana Drive, open field. The event marked the end of the fasting Month of Ramadan. Members of the Community were encouraged to continue assisting needy people even after Ramadan. President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa also conveyed his well wishes to the Muslim Community. From the very beginning, settlement in Lenasia was a contentious issue, driven with debates about race, class, collaboration with and resistance to Apartheid. Calls were made by the Indian Congress to reject the plans of the newly elected Nationalist Government, but the drastic shortage of Housing for Indians in Areas close to the Johannesburg City Centre meant that some, especially the very poor workers, welcomed the offer of a place to stay and conditions which, although minimal, were a vast improvement on their previous lot. Indians had been living in various Suburbs in and around Johannesburg, in varying numbers, for decades. The Nat's at first proposed an alternative to re-housing the Indians, because of the Group Areas Act, offering them a free passage back to India, but very few took up this offer. So the plan was for the Indians to be moved to a Suburb populated only by Indians! Mohammed Jajbhay, Rev Sigamoney, Mohammed Abed, Ebrahim Dadabhai and Advocate Minty formed the Transvaal Indian Organisation, which was tasked to persuade Indians to move to Lenasia. Indians living in Sophiatown were the first to move to Lenasia, as housing had been the biggest issue for all the people living there. Entire families lived in tiny rooms because space was in such short supply. Rents were extremely high, and to secure living space tenants were also required to pay other costs, such as goodwill, a sum to guarantee the right to rent the lodgings in the first place. The Reverend Sigamany, a prominent figure in the Indian community, arranged for these desperate people to take up accommodation at a Military Barracks, in Lenasia. Many of the newcomers to Lenasia were waiters at Hotels and Restaurants in the City centre who could not afford even moderate rentals, and found the lodgings at the Military Base, 35 km South-West of Johannesburg, affordable! The surrounding property was owned by a German National by the name of Lenz, (hence the name- Lenasia came forth!) He had acquired the Property and settled there much earlier but he eventually sold the property to the Government for Housing Developments. Later the Government sold plots for around R 60 each, in the first extension to be established. The plots were purchased by families eligible for Government loans to build private Homes, according to strict specifications. By 1955, the first School was established, the Lenasia High School, which was also meant to cater to Indian pupils living in Fordsburg and other Areas of Johannesburg. Indeed, infrastructure in Lenasia, in 1955, was nonexistent. Until the later 1950's, houses in Extension 1 had no piped water, electricity or sewage, except for a bucket system. In 1958 Lenasia was proclaimed an Indian Township under the Group Areas. The creation of Lenasia meant that Indians were sent off into a separate Area, and if Africans had a presence in the Town, it was as workers: domestics or labourers. The Hindu community has also set up a series of temples, one of the first being the Siva Soobramanian Temple on the corner of Primary and Heron Streets. Others include the Lakshmi Narayan Temple (Crane Street), the Sanathan Ved Dharma Sabha (Penguin Avenue). The Saaberie Jumma Mosque was constructed in the early 1960's. Many other Mosques emerged, including the Saaberie Chistie Mosque, Nur-u Islam Mosque, Jaamia Mosque, Kuwait-ul Islam, Omar Farouk Mosque, among others. The demise of Apartheid meant that, theoretically at least, Lenasia was no longer an Indian Group Area, but it has continued to be an Indian Residential Area. Lenasia, like Soweto, has come to be counted as a Regional economy, and developers have stepped in to tap this market. Thus Lenasia now has its own Mall; the Trade Route Mall which is a huge Shopping Centre, that make it unnecessary for residents to travel to the City centre to do their shopping! The Thembelihle Informal Settlement was formed, since a large percentage of the population of Lenasia has always included domestic workers, there has always been an African presence in the Town. Many of these workers prefer to have their own homes rather than live on the premises of their employers, and have set up shacks or small buildings in an Area between Extensions 9 and 10, now known as Thembelihle. Businesses in Lenasia are reliant on shoppers from Soweto and Eldorado Park, as well as Areas such as Ennerdale, South of Lenasia.