♦ XXXII ♦
The
opening up of the Orange Free State field presented social and
administrative problems, as well as technical and financial ones. It
also presented great opportunities for solving those problems in such a
way as to promote human happiness and well-being, all question of
efficiency apart. Ernest Oppenheimer was very well aware of this
aspect of the situation and, indeed, placed social advancement in the
very forefront of his hopes and aspirations for the new venture.
In
Northern Rhodesia, Anglo American Corporation had already gained
experience of what it meant to provide for the amenities of
civilization in an area of virgin bush. When new mines are set up, it
is not only a question of communications, of the provision of power
supply and of water supply for the mines themselves. Human beings have
to be housed and fed; children must be educated; public health
conditions must be safeguarded by adequate sanitary equipment and by
the provision of hospitals. The provision of such,amenities and
necessities is not only a question of quantity, but of quality.
Moreover, in Southern Africa these matters cannot be thought of merely
in terms of one race: in a multiracial society the welfare of blacks as
well as of whites has to be taken into account, and this involves
winning the assent of Government to new ideas.
The
Orange Free State gold-field, though not situated in the 'bush', had
nevertheless to be built up in an area of 'mealie lands' with a very
sparse population, with poor or non-existent roads, no railways, remote
from large cities and with neither a white nor a black labour force
available.
The
gold-field is 150 miles from Johannesburg and 90 miles from
Bloem-fontcin. Few roads and no railways connected the area with the
established communities. No housing existed. Welkoni, Virginia and
Allanridge are new towns built on the mealie lands of ten years ago; no
indigenous supply of labour, skill or material existed in the Orange
Free State, and all these had to be imported from other provinces or
from overseas. Materials can be manhandled over rough roads and if
necessary left without shelter. Labour cannot be so treated and the
great problem of planning was to fix a standard of housing and
ancillary amenities which would attract adequate numbers of
workmen—and, not less important, their families—while at the same time
keeping expenditure within reasonable limits.
These
were the words which Ernest Oppenheimer used to describe the original
situation when he was reviewing the first ten years of Orange
