This fear was exacerbated by the kinds of vice the discovery of gold brought to a racially conscious republic. The Water and Sanitation Board, which was later given local government powers, was concerned about the diseases that could spread as a result of conditions in the slums. The rich, who were white, lived separately in better housing than the squalid conditions the poor were living in. British victory in this war paved the way for more foreigners to settle in Johannesburg and exploit gold resources.Īn earlier feature of these developments was that at first the poor were racially mixed and lived in the same neighbourhoods. Before the South African War (Anglo-Boer War 2), these foreigners were treated as outsiders ( uitlanders). It was also capital-intensive and because the South African Republic was cash strapped, there was room for European businessmen to engage in the mining industry. Moreover, gold mining was labour intensive and, as a result, attracted more labour away from the countryside to Johannesburg. The consequence of this promising wealth was that a great number of people left their farms, rural homes and other towns in South Africa to make a quick buck on the Rand.
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