Providing for The “Better-Class Native” The Creation of Lamontville, 1923–1933

Abstract

Abstract Durban, like other local authorities, proved reluctant to assume the financial responsibility for establishing a township for African families as stipulated by the Natives (Urban Area) Act of 1923, and held out for eleven years before Lamontville was opened up for occupation. As informal housing grew, and conditions deteriorated on the urban periphery, white liberals and the African petty bourgeoisie deplored the delay in the creation of a township. Employers and local authorities balked at subsidising the township. Their debate reflects the interests of the protagonists of compound accommodation, and hence a migrant labour force, and those industrialists who desired a settled workforce in the urban area. By the late 1920s, this division assumed the form of a fierce battle over land and property rights between local indusrialists and white property owners, particularly over the position of the proposed township. However the final impetus behind the establishment of the township was the disturbances of 1929–30. Lamontville emerged as part of the local authority’s efforts to deal with the rising tide of African militancy in Durban, through the “stabilization” of an African “middle class”.