The Origin Of Mdantsane

The Establishment of Mdantsane As A Bantu Residential Area in 1962

MDANTSANE TODAY. The idea was born in 1962

We have done quite some research on the origin and establishment of Mdantsane. The History of Mdantsane is a topic that interests us a lot and we would like to enable our readers to take a look back into the past and understand the origin of Mdantsane as a residential area that has developed into the second biggest township in South Africa.

What we know is that Mdantsane was established in 1962 as a so called Bantu Residential Area. But fact is there is very little documentation about the development of this area in 1962 or earlier.

We have been searching for quite a while for old documents, photos, maps and other useful information but always with the same outcome. NADA! This was also a our reason for the establishment of this online magazine The Mdantsane Way.

We paid a visit to the East London Museum the other day and had planned to spent a whole day there searching their archives. What was handed over to us was one folder approximately 10 cm thick. Not much here either!

But our visit was not in vain. The folder contained three documents, consisting of notes from the proceedings of a meeting with the deputy-minister of Bantu Administration and Development regarding the proposed development of Mdantsane as a Bantu Residential area dating back to the 13th of March 1962.

In 1962 the idea of Mdantsane was born. The notes give us a very good idea of the complex and complicated discussion that had taken place at the time.    

Townships were established in strategic positions to bigger cities with the purpose in mind to serve as a labour pool for so called Industrial Development Sites. People were removed from other locations to live there and commute to the cities for work.

We are publishing here with the East London Museum's permission extracts of a meeting that took place 52 years ago and that determined the future of Mdantsane at the time. We think that you might find this as interesting and enlightening as we did. 

The participants in the meeting were as follows:

MDANTSANE DEVELOPED INTO SECOND BIGGEST TOWNSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA, BORN IN 1962

THE BIRTH OF A TOWNSHIP

"They tell us 400.000 people live here. But we don't believe it. Because if you drive through this place it feels like as if there is a million. And the place is getting bigger.

We know that we are the second largest township in South-Africa, Soweto is first, but still not much has been said about us. But with the arrival of the big shopping mall we are up-grading now. "

Mdantsane was established in 1962 under the framework of the Apartheid Regime and it's purpose was to provide living space for cheap African labor coming from East London but also from rural areas. 

The first inhabitants that were living in Mdantsane were residents that had been removed by force from an area in East London called the East Bank.

According to old documents several hundred low cost houses were built on the outskirts of the Eastern Suburbs of East London at that time to accommodate them.

In the years from 1964 to 1970 further forced resettlements took place and thousands of families became inhabitants of Mdantsane that was growing rapidly into a big township developing it's own character and life style.

The Department of Bantu Education and Development under the Apartheid Regime saw Mdantsane as a sort of labor reserve for the labor needs of East London.  

It remained an isolated artificial construction during the Apartheid time that never integrated into the white urban areas.

In 2008 the Mdantsane City Mall one of the biggest malls in the Eastern Cape has opened it's door and has changes the face of the town. A great step was made assissting Mdantsane to become a self -contained suburb with its own entertainment facilities and amenities.