From coffee cart to industrial feeding canteen: Feeding Johannesburg's Black workers, 1945-1965
Date
1985-03
Authors
Rogerson, Chris
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Abstract
Ready accesss to suppliers of basic food snacks and sources of daily
refreshment is part of the ' taken-for-granted' world of most White
workers in Johannesburg. Even for those employees whose labour
situates them in areas of the city devoid of restaurants or take-away
food facilities, the requirement for sustenance during the working day
is readily met by the factory canteen or industrial caterer. By contrast,
the adequate provision of daily feeding facilities for Johannesburg's Black industrial workforce emerged as a matter of considerable
controversy and public debate, particularly after 1945. Observers of
urban Johannesburg drew attention to the daily ritual of "thousands of
Africans lunching on the pavements and in the gutters of the city".... In the view of municipal officials the dilemma of providing adequate
food services for the Black consumer in Johannesburg could not be
resolved by an informal sector or unregulated trade, such as existed
with the coffee-carts. Against the role of coffee-carts as part of the
solution to the wider issue of feeding Black workers in the apartheid
city, the attitude of municipal authorities was that the carts themselves
constituted a major 'problem'. The resolution of this problem
was to necessitate the excision of the trade from the streets of
Johannesburg, an event which sharply focussed municipal attention upon
their former vital position in the supply of refreshment services. It
is the objective in this paper to chart the transition which occurred
in the feeding of Black industrial workers between 1945 and 1965 from
the unofficial solution of the coffee-carts to the official blessing
and promotion of factory canteens. This task will be pursued through
three major sections of analysis. First, the trajectory of the twenty
year struggle waged by municipal authorities against the coffee-carts
will be traced. In the second section, an examination is undertaken of
the several sources of objection to the activities of the coffee-cart
traders, identifying the key forces and agents behind their removal.
Finally, in the third section, the focus broadens to illuminate debates
surrounding suggested and implemented official solutions to the question
of feeding Black workers in the apartheid city.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented March 1985
Keywords
Vending stands. South Africa. Johannesburg, Food service. Sanitation. South Africa. Johannesburg, Blacks. Employment. South Africa. Johannesburg