Worker’s Museum Johannesburg

APARTHEID, MUSEUM

Page created : 3rd June 2012
Page updated : 26th August 2024

Explore the REAL Johannesburg

“Hard to believe that people could be so cruel”

” Eye opening “

“. . . stunned and saddened by its history!”

The Worker’s Museum is presently closed, due to renovations

The entrance to the Worker's Museum in Johannesburg, with cutout figures of migrant workers

WORKER’S MUSEUM, JOHANNESBURG

I found The Workers Museum, which was one of a number of compounds’ run by the Johannesburg City Council, difficult to comprehend, but absolutely engrossing!

Despite it being no more than an old, albeit beautifully, renovated building, that goes by the name of The Workers Museum, it’s fundamentally a museum to the system of migrant labour.

This was a system that seduced thousands of workers, from all over Southern Africa, to the city of gold, but a system that, sadly, very seldom acknowledged the immense contribution they made to the growth of Johannesburg!

The Workers Museum, opened as a museum in 2010, is a building that gives such a graphic insight into the hardship that black, male migrant labourers had to endure.

INFORMATION CORRECT
July 2023

WORKERS MUSEUM ENTRANCE FEES :
Free / Mahhala / No charge!

WORKERS MUSEUM OPENING TIMES :
Tuesday – Sunday: 09h00 – 17h00 (9.00am – 5.00pm)
Closed on Mondays, Good Friday and 25th & 26th December

WORKERS MUSEUM ADDRESS :
The Workers’ Museum
52 Rahima Moosa Street (opposite Museum Africa)
(Closest parking outside SciBono in Miriam Makeba Street)
Cnr. Miriam Makeba Street
Newtown

WORKERS MUSEUM GPS Co-ordinates (hdd.ddddd°) :
S26.20341° E028.03225°

WORKERS MUSEUM GUIDED TOURS :
The Friends of the Workers Museum offer special tours as well as heritage trails of the Museum and Newtown.
These must be booked in advance!
Telephone : +27 (0)11 336-9190

WORKERS MUSEUM CONTACT :
Telephone : +27 (0)11 492-0600/-1865
Fax : +27 (0)11 492-0618
Send an E-Mail

The yard, showing the tree that migrant workers were tied to, at the Johannesburg Workers Museum

CONCRETE MATTRESS!

The Newtown Workers Compound, designed to house 330 workers, was built by the Johannesburg City Council in 1913, and was used initially to house their Cleansing and Sanitary Staff.

From 1927, it was used to house labourers employed in a number of power stations in the area, and from 1972, was used to house general municipal workers.
The compound was operational until as recently as the early 80’s, and finally converted into a storage facility in the late 80’s.

It was one of a few remaining compounds that was run by the Johannesburg municipality.

The design of the building, like others operated by the City Council, was an adaptation of the living quarters once used to house migrant workers on the mines.

The beds were of a two tier system – the lower bunk a concrete shelf, and the upper one, a wooden shelf.

No mattresses or lockers were provided.

Photos on the wall at the Workers Museum in Johannesburg, show some of the thousands of unknown migrant workers
Hanging displays depicting life for the workers at the Johannesburg Workers Museum

APPALLING LIVING CONDITIONS

Ablutions were appalling, with one latrine provided for every 41 men, and one cold shower for every 36 men! A number of displays explain how significant the migrant labour system was in building both the city’s – as well as the country’s, culture and economy, The Workers Museum gives a very detailed look at what were – at the very least, appalling living conditions. It shows how the men were controlled and exploited by government policies and municipal management. There were nine dormitories where hundreds of men lived in slave-like conditions, sleeping alongside one another on slabs of concrete – or if an established worker, on the upper wooden level of the bunk, with no personal privacy and not being allowed to talk after 10.00pm! There was no electricity and the men were not allowed visitors.
A coal stove in the middle of the room is all the heating the inhabitants had at the Workers Museum in Johannesburg
9 concrete bunks below and 9 wooden bunks above, with no mattresses, that people slept on at the Johannesburg Workers Museum

WORKER’S MUSEUM RULES

Rules were severe, and the compound manager, who was always white and who had his own cottage adjoining the cramped black living quarters, controlled their lives totally.

Rules such as – #15 : “No African shall have his room light switched on after “LIGHTS OUT”, or Rule # 19 : “No African shall vomit other than in a toilet pan or place provided for this purpose”.

These meaningless, “small” offences were dealt with, using harsh, inhumane punishment that included having cold water, freezing in winter, thrown over the “accused”, or the “accused” being tied to a tree in the courtyard overnight – if the lock-up room was otherwise occupied.

Included in the exhibition are recordings of workers who lament the fact they were separated from their families for such long periods of time – although this phenomenon, still happens today.
The rural areas are very often not able to sustain families and men are forced to leave their families in search of work in the city.

The shower room with 9 cold water showers, with no doors or partitions separating the men, at the Workers Museum in Johannesburg
The toilet room has 8 squat toilets, with once again, no doors or partitions separating the men at the Johannesburg Workers Museum

The Worker’s Museum does not have a website

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