Elite Location
1882 - 1890

Although the Town Council was desirous of better control over the township community, it was also aware that another class of wealthier and better educated person also lived in the locations. Several councillors wished to aid that group as much as possible.

In August 1882 a committee on locations had recommended that the Council grant some 20 plots of ground to the wealthier class of Black person on a 14 year lease period. Councillor William Darley-Hartley, who advocated the principle, explained that for some time the idea had been generally accepted both within and without the Council. Councillor Richard Walker, in supporting the motion, called on his colleagues to take "a broad view" of putting facilities in the way of those Black people who required the means "of raising themselves".

There were, Walker said, a number of Black people who wished to better themselves and they would be an example to the others. The more respectable complained of "contamination" and, although it was legally possible for them to come into town and establish themselves, it was in practice very difficult to do so. A plan to create some form of class distinction within the locations, therefore, "would answer well". He had heard from "reliable authority", he continued, that there was prostitution "and all kinds of evil going on" and the honest Blacks "could not maintain their respectability" as matters then stood.

Councillor Amelius Vincent and Mayor John Gately attempted to block the proposal for different reasons. Vincent wished to see the creation of another location for the elite Blacks rather than give them prolonged control of the land. He believed, he argued, that 14 years of tenure would only bring about "a worse state of affairs".

Gately, on the other hand, felt that the interests of the Black people should not be neglected but disapproved of leasing the land "for so long a period". He did not think, he argued, that there "would ever be a disposition to dispossess deserving natives", a rather naive argument when viewed in the light of later circumstances. He proposed instead that the grant should be made for shorter periods. Despite the opposition, however, the original proposition was accepted by a majority of one vote and the General Purposes Committee was instructed to report on sites and size of lots.

The committee did its homework quickly and reported as early as the very next week. It recommended that the plots for each household be 45 square feet and a site be set aside some 250 yards east of what was still the old Wesleyan location. The committee recommended a quitrent of £1 per annum.

The recommendation was accepted and in October it was decided that each applicant would have to provide the Council with evidence of good character and behaviour, and of his financial state. He had to submit "a general idea" of the style and cost of the proposed building for the Council's approval, and his proposal had to be supported by the recommendation of two other inhabitants. In November it was resolved to have the ground surveyed and the necessary steps taken for the plots to be allocated to "deserving natives".

It would have seemed that, by about 1886, the Black community on the East Bank was well settled. The Wesleyan Location was flourishing, and was reported to be well looked-after. The Xhosa community were looking forward to putting down roots in Newsam's Town. The elite village had been given 14 year rights to the land on which they were settled. And yet, by 1888, the Town Council was drawing up new plans to scrap all three villages in favour of a unified township further from the town.

See also: Wesleyan Location, 1878 East Bank Location

By 1890, the East Bank Location was a reality and, despite a brief tussle with the Council over the legality of the move, the Black people were eventually forced to give in and move once more.

Dr Keith Tankard