SHAPING A WHITE IDENTITY IN EPPING GARDEN VILLAGE IN 1938–1950
RESOURCES AND TIME
While the apartheid era meant tightening control, the residents in EGV were fi nancially more secure than before. During this era the power over everyday life in all the Company’s suburbs was directed from the headquarters towards the social workers and other professionals within the area. They used their various methods of rehabilitation and control,
which, combined with the regulations of the apartheid regime, produced an increasingly suffocating rule in the Village. People were still com-manded, but also seduced into whiteness. They were given a taste of the benefi ts they would enjoy in full measure once they were successful. The apartheid government made more money available for rehabilitation.
While the carrot grew bigger, the stick became heavier.
Rent relief schemes, the fi rst of which was granted in 1954, were a typical rehabilitative measure of this era. They gained increasing popular-ity during the years to follow. Rent rebate was a fragile thing though: if you were, for instance, caught drinking with your money, you lost your rebate.
Residents in need were not only given cheaper rents but also material assets, and during this era the infl ow of resources directed at them bulged.
The Company provided milk, butter, oranges, free wireless licences and cheap furniture schemes for its residents. Sometimes the money for these products and goods came from its own coffers, but often the Company negotiated for subsidies with like-minded state organisations. It became expert at obtaining maintenance grants and getting money from the Wel-fare Department.
A study of the Company’s fi nances would not provide a realistic pic-ture, since most of its funds were obtained from outside sources and then diverted directly to its tenants. In the early 1960s there were 288 welfare agencies in Cape Town – almost half of them were run by religious or-ganisations, and 96 of these organisations were for whites only (Bick-ford-Smith et al. 1999: 192). At the end of the 1960s the Company itself had just a small emergency fund from which occasional payments were made to families in severe fi nancial distress.
The CHL sponsored the Epping Vigilance Association, which provid-ed destitute families with money, groceries and foodstuffs. Various other organisations (such as the Lions Club and Rotary) also assisted families fi nancially when requested to do so.
Although the 1980s were politically a turbulent period in the surround-ing Cape Flats, little changed in EGV/Ruyterwacht where the CHL em-ployed a servant who worked full-time for its senior tenants. Christmas parties could still take place at a hotel, and the dinner given for seniors was paid for by money from the club run by the CHL. Social clubs and other activities for seniors were important, for there were suddenly many more elderly people – between 1980 and 1991 the number of residents over 65 increased from 150 to 750.
Work and Gender153
During the 1960s there was not only an improvement in the economic conditions and housing situation of the poor whites, but unemployment largely ended for white South Africans. The economy became state con-trolled, indicated by the annual expenditure on the public sector, which rose from 36.5 per cent in 1946 to 53 per cent in 1976 (Giliomee 1979b:
165).
The ruling Nationalist Party ensured that mostly Afrikaners were em-ployed in the civil service. In 1976, 60 per cent of the white labour force in public and semi-public sector were Afrikaners, while the English-speaking South Africans moved away from the public sector. They were pushed by the demands of bilingualism in the civil service, and pulled by the profi ts that were to be made in the private sector. (Giliomee 1979b:
165.)
In 1977, 65,2 per cent of Afrikaners were in white-collar occupations.
Afrikaners were also reasonably successful in business, and the economic gap between the Afrikaners and the English-speaking South Africans nar-rowed remarkably between 1946 and 1976, although it was never com-pletely closed (Giliomee 1979b: 169-174).154
At the same time, deviations from the norm of a hard-working white man became indefensible. The method of handling ‘work-shy’ men grew increasingly harsh and effective during the 1950s and the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1950s the Company began sending lazy or ’work-shy’
men away to work colonies such as Sonderwater (work colonies were later euphemistically known as Rehabilitation Centres).
“WORK COLONY CASES: EUROPEANS: Referring to the latest policy of the Department of Coloured Affairs when handling work col-ony cases among the Coloured community, the Chief Welfare Offi cer reported that in terms of Section 16 of the Work Colonies Act, work-shy Europeans could be placed under the supervision of the Probation
153 Codes: Female Role, Male Role, Relation to Work.
154 Ratio of income of Afrikaners to English Year Personal income Per capita income
1946 40:60 100:211
1960 47:53 100:156
1976 50:50 100:141
(From Giliomee 1979b: 174).
Offi cer for automatic transfer to a work colony when trying to avoid commitment to a colony by taking employment temporarily. Noted.”
(CHL, SWR: 1964.)
Coercion worked, and the decrease in unemployment and vandalism were noted with satisfaction.
“In reply to a question by Rev. C., the Chief Welfare Offi cer stated that unemployment had decreased considerably in the Company’s Europe-an villages during the last eight months . . . The Committee noted that the incidence of vandalism had decreased in the company’s European villages during the past few months.” (CHL, SWR: 1965.)
The last work colony case appeared in the archival material at the end of 1970s. The men of EGV had developed a reputation for being skollies, no-good half-criminal wastrels.
While many poor white women never had a job outside their domestic environments, tolerance towards women pursuing professional careers grew. In 1950 only 2,5 per cent of EGV mothers were partly or wholly responsible for the family income (CHL Survey: 1950). There were sev-eral reasons for this. To begin with, women were badly paid.
“Mrs. S. is in receipt of a maintenance grant of £13 per month and the Dutch Reformed Church still contributes £1 per month. The eldest daughter, Marie is now working in a Cosmetic Factory and earns £2 per week.” (CHL, SWR: 1952.)
Why would anybody want a repetitive, tiresome and potentially danger-ous job in a factory, when she could stay at home and honourably receive a larger income? During the time when the fi rst work-shy men were be-ing sent to labour colonies, social workers began experiencbe-ing diffi culties with keeping women in paid labour.
“The social worker was then informed that the daughter’s earnings had fallen away at the end of April when she ceased working. Other-wise the income was unchanged. The social worker arranged for this daughter to call at the offi ce for the purpose of being directed to the Juvenile Affairs Board for employment, but as yet she has not turned up.” (CHL, SWR: 1952.)
In these cases gender roles worked for women: in the archival material women were never called work-shy, or sent to work colonies, whereas an unemployed white male became easily labelled as such.
Conversely, the gender roles limited women’s chances of taking part in professional life. Occasionally the social workers had to alleviate friction that had occurred between spouses when the wife wanted to work or had to support the family. In these cases a husband, unemployed or injured, could not bear the fact that he was not fulfi lling his masculine role. This role pressure must have affected the women’s enthusiasm to take on work outside the home.
Also the fear of losing available benefi ts became a factor that came to affect the women’s decisions to leave their professional life.
“A case was brought to the Selection Committee where application was made for Mr. M. to become the tenant of the house which was registered in the name of the widow he had married, formerly Mrs. B.
There was nothing adverse in the case, but Mr. M. and his wife were both employed, each earning £26 per month, meaning that the total income exceeds the family’s maximum by £22 per month. The Commit-tee decided that in this case the tenancy could not be granted to Mr. M.
and that the family should be asked to leave unless the total income is reduced to within the prescribed limit, i.e. if Mrs. M. ceases working.”
(CHL, SWR: 1952.)
In 1952 the Company decided to look at the incomes of all families where both the spouses were working. A cheap rent was not the only social ben-efi t a family could lose as a result of too high an income, but maternity grants and maintenance grants were endangered as well. From this per-spective it seems strange that any woman would have worked outside her home if she could have avoided it. (CHL, SWR: 1952.)
Therefore, if women wanted to earn an income for themselves, they had to fi nd ways of making money without threatening the prevailing gender roles and without losing their subsidies. One way to attain this was to fi nd work that could be done at home. An informant who moved to the area in the 1950s held several jobs through the years, most of which she managed from her home. She was an agent for dry-cleaners and for the shoe-repairman; she sold vegetables and worked in a store on Saturdays.
In our conversations, she called none of these activities work. Offi cially, she had always been a housewife. In reality, the number of women who
contributed to the family income must have been much higher than the one indicated in surveys.
Although married women were still considered as being in the best place when they were housewives, a professional career was also per-ceived as somewhat of a good thing for a woman. For some, a career was an escape route from the poor white status.
“The daughter has been advised to leave the house. As a nursing as-sistant she shows ambition.” (CHL, SWR: 1954.)
From the start the uplifters’ ideas concerning female work were more per-missible and fl exible than those concerning male work. During this era, the social workers’ attempts to empower women became more career-oriented as marriage ceased to be the only option available. At the end of the 1960s, the housing offi cials again began disregarding the income of dependants. The income of a wife thus no longer threatened access to the benefi ts, unless she was a breadwinner.
The ideals of womanhood changed as well: in 1975 there is a fi rst reference to a mother of a family having other than domestic value: ”she impresses as an intelligent and independent woman” (CHL, SWR: 1975).
Prior to this comment, a mother’s value in these reports had, without exception, been attributed to the way she looked after her family and fulfi lled the ideals of the female role. These ideals were refl ected in the interviews I had with the senior ladies, some of whom had resided in EGV for decades.
“I have worked in many places and done many things in my life, but fi rst and foremost I will always consider myself as a mother.” (F., 85, a long-term resident.)
Uplifting Free Time155
A few years after the establishment of EGV, the Company began to have its fi rst doubts about the residents’ commitment to becoming rehabili-tated, suspecting that they spent their time on deviant activities. Alcohol-ism has indeed been a problem in Epping Garden Village throughout its existence. The selling of illicit liquor was commonplace.
155 Memo on clubwork, codes Sexuality, Deviance, Liquor, Crime.
“I did not drink, so I would not know where to get it, but my brothers knew exactly where to get drink. If they wanted, they just went out and they came back in two minutes with bottles of brandy.” (F., 55, grew up in EGV.)
The archival fi ndings show that despite the social pressures on female behaviour, many women in the suburb struggled with an addiction to alcohol. In 1953 the uplifters’ concern about alcoholism grew, and the Company launched a campaign. The social workers from all the housing schemes prepared special reports on all the families that were known to have or who had in the past had diffi culties with alcoholism. They found over fi fty families, most of whom came from Epping Garden Village.
These families were taken under special observation, and underwent in-tensive rehabilitative measures. Despite all the work and effort, alcohol-ism never ceased to occur as one of the main causes of divorces, poverty and evictions in the social workers’ reports.
The social workers battled to make people’s free time productive. For years the Company strove to get the residents to become more active in their own rehabilitation. Social workers tried to get the people to attend clubs, showed them free movies and invited lecturers to educate them.
But something was wrong. People were not keen, and despite all the ef-forts, they rarely became more enthusiastic. They would rather evade these social situations, keeping to their own, away from social relations that could be competitive or even destructive for them.
“It has been found, however, that clubs such as a Women’s Union, Young People’s Guild, have not proved as successful as they might be.
Members show enthusiasm for a very short time and then their inter-est disappears. While collecting information from tenants the social workers questioned tenants regarding their attitude to fellow tenants.
The great majority stated – ”I have discovered that it is better not to have any friends. I don’t associate with other tenants beyond greeting them in the street.” The social workers wish to organise more specifi c groups such as a sewing club in the hope of gaining more response.”
(CHL, SWR: 1950, author’s emphasis.)
At the end of 1953 the social workers reported on their attempts to get the residents to use their free time constructively. There were social clubs for the aged, and also clubs for children, adolescent boys and adult women.
Children between 9 and 12 had their own groups. These groups were
aimed at those children who were showing signs of becoming trouble-some. As a group they participated in simple handicraft projects in order to learn co-operation. The ideological emphasis was on developing a col-lective White identity, as the quotation below blatantly points out.
“No particular emphasis is placed on learning in the sense of develop-ing individual abilities; the emphasis rests on encouragdevelop-ing and guiddevelop-ing the group members to participate in the group undertakings . . . as the children concerned become adjusted to participation of this nature in a small group they become better able to fi nd their place in the larger, natural groups of the community.” (CHL, SWR: 1953.)
Adolescent boys were taught boxing. The boxing club was successful:
in 1953 there were 80 members. During its existence, it produced some successful boxers on a national level. Characteristically, there was also a hidden agenda.
“The work done by the Club goes further than developing technical skill, however. The trainer is a deeply religious person and exercises an infl uence upon the boys which has a notable effect on their general conduct.” (CHL, SWR: 1953.)
At this time the ladies’ club was in trouble. Those residents who had initially run this club, had moved to better-off areas, and only one of the ten original Club Committee members was left. This was a phenomenon parallel to the mass departure of the church councils. Even when the club presented demonstrations of needlework, making of salads, educational fi lms, a games evening, a gifts evening and a debate, it was diffi cult to get the residents to run it. The aim of the club was defi ned as ”encour-agement of a greater measure of independence and self-reliance” (CHL, SWR: 1953). But these characteristics did not seem to be developing in the residents, and the social workers were frustrated.
The escalating affl uence of the 1960s showed in the ways the people’s leisure time changed. The increased wealth was refl ected in the attention paid to the seniors.
“The Company social workers reported upon the success of ‘Aged Week’ which was held in Cape Town from 25th September, 1961, to 29th September, 1961, when many of the aged tenants residing in the
Company’s European villages were entertained at cinema shows, a symphony concert and a garden party.” (CHL, SWR: 1962.)
There was also occasional resident activity. Between 1956 and 1975 the Epping Vigilance and Welfare Association surfaced several times in the archival data, sometimes commended for their services for the Company.
The existence of organisations such as these shows that some of the more middle-class residents wanted to uplift the community from the inside and help their neighbours.
In the 1970s interest in sport, gardening and church activities were important yardsticks when the selection committee evaluated the pro-spective tenants. There was a certain softening in the value climate:
unwed mothers, for example, were now allowed to become main tenants (CHL, SWR: 1977). On the other hand, the Company still interfered with people’s business, chasing away the misfi ts and sending men to work colonies. Despite this, there was something almost pleasant in the atmos-phere.
“The Committee noted a report compiled by Mrs. C., Community Organizer, Epping Garden Village, on the activities of the Epping Women’s Cultural Club during 1973, that various concerts had been organised for local residents and Church groups outside Epping, that talks on subjects covering fl ower arrangements, religion, classical mu-sic, homosexualism and the preparation of inexpensive fi sh and meat dishes had been given and that a most successful Cheese and Wine Evening had been held for members and their friends.” (CHL, SWR:
1973.)
In the 1980s a change took place in the atmosphere. A new generation of social workers took over, and the Company began organising carnivals and happenings. There was even a ‘Miss Ruyterwacht’ competition, and the youth were entertained at disco-evenings.
The virtue of mutual help existed throughout this era, since a 1985 Social Welfare Committee record notes that ”the volunteers in the com-munity are doing outstanding work”. Volunteering helped the upper layer of tenants to fi ght their personal frustrations with poverty and increasing dependency in the suburb. Markedly a middle-class practice, it was also a method of social distinction. In the volunteer work, the ideals of mutual help and middle-class aspirations were united in a constructive and
ben-efi cial manner, and connected with the positive ideals of a good white. I regularly ran into this during my fi eldwork.
”I know that God has a task for me here in Ruyterwacht. He has put me in this community to help the others. I have a mission here.” (Louise, 56, a long-time resident.)
Appearance and Taste156
During the era of apartheid the social workers’ reports refl ected continu-ing awareness of the appearance, taste and behaviour of the tenants. The previously set ideals of bodily behaviour were strong.
One of the present social workers told me that she had always won-dered at the start of her career in Ruyterwacht in the1980s, why people would fi rst take her into their kitchens when she went on a house call.
One of the present social workers told me that she had always won-dered at the start of her career in Ruyterwacht in the1980s, why people would fi rst take her into their kitchens when she went on a house call.