Housing Essential Service Workers in Johannesburg: Locational Constraint and Conflict

The stereotypical model of racially segregated South African cities ignores on-site barrack-like housing built in "white" suburbs for blacks employed by local authorities as essential service workers. The so-called "compounds" helped ensure the reliability and efficiency of workers by minimizing the length of their journeys to work and restricting their exposure to what were considered corrupting influences. In Johannesburg, all-male black compounds were feared and disliked by white residents, who regarded them as dangerous, unsightly, noisy, insanitary, and a threat to property values. Nevertheless, between 1896 and 1956 the technology, management, and financing of essential services prevented resolution of the locational conflict. Material considerations subverted ideology and obstructed the emergence of strict racial residential segregation. Consolidation of compounds and their relocation in designated black townships only occurred after 1950, in accordance with formalized apartheid zoning requirements.