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The 29 houses on Coronation Street in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, which is still formally known as Triomf at the deeds office, are worth R24 million together. Less than 13km across town in Sandhurst, the residences on Coronation Road are worth a collective R862,438,000: enough to buy 36 Coronation Streets. Poloko Tau compares them
Coronation Road, Sandhurst
Two domestic workers in brightly-coloured overalls sat on the lush pavement lawn last Sunday afternoon. One sat in a small patch of shade beneath a meticulously manicured cypress tree. The other enjoyed the wintry Johannesburg sun.
The trees, scrupulously clipped into cones, formed a neat row along the street with larger trees towering over them from behind a high-walled residence in the city’s wealthiest suburb.
In the middle of winter, a few bare-branched deciduous trees could be seen in a neighbourhood dominated by evergreen shrubbery. The two women were colleagues who work full-time on the same property for the same “wealthy” family.
This is Sandhurst in Sandton, where one resident told City Press his property rates cost R13 000 a month. Water and electricity bills for those living in the area are at least twice that, giving property owners in the neighbourhood a municipal bill of almost R40 000 a month.
Asked why their employers needed two full- time domestic workers, one woman responded: “It is normal here. Other families have two helpers and a cook. In our case we’re two; one does the cleaning and laundry while the other, because she can drive, runs domestic errands and helps around the house with other chores when she’s not too busy.
“There is also someone who takes care of the garden three days a week, while a garden service company comes in once every two weeks.
“We’re happy with the salaries we get and most employers here are generous. Our employers are very wealthy. The families of some of the other domestic workers in the area are rarely home and they literally run the household on their own, keeping it clean and all that.”
Deeds office data reveal that Coronation Road counts among its residents King Otumfuo Osei Tutu from Ghana, who bought his home there for R27 million in 2012. His office was later quoted in a newspaper report saying this was a “basic house” used when visiting South Africa for medical checkups.
Deeds records also show David Themba Langa, former Land Bank chairperson and coal mine owner, through the Mgayo Family Trust, owns a property purchased for R38 million last year.
During City Press’ chat to the domestic workers, several vans from private security firms drove past repeatedly, clearly troubled by the sight of someone in a downmarket journalist‘s pool car parked by the roadside talking to the women.
It was our cue to leave.
Coronation Street, Sophiatown
Coronation street in Sophiatown, Johannesburg. Picture:Mpumelelo Buthelezi
There is nothing much to show here from the glory days of Sophiatown.
The suburb became an exclusively white neighbourhood after the 1955 forced removals of mainly black residents, and its history was bulldozed along with their homes.
Today, the neighbourhood is lower middle-class, having scored lower in the property price stakes than nearby Melville and Westdene.
Sophiatown’s Coronation Street is worlds apart from it’s Sandhurst namesake, but it is almost as quiet.
Gone is the vibrancy of what old residents used to call “Sof’town” or “Kofifi”, a lively township known for its jazz tradition, live performances, shebeens and well-dressed gangsters.
Except for at least two houses – one occupied by former ANC president AB Xuma, which escaped destruction, and another belonging to Archbishop Trevor Huddleston – little remains of Sophiatown, which was rebuilt and called Triomf (“Triumph” in Afrikaans), which it remains at the deeds office today.
Coronation Street, about 500m in length, is marked by the efforts of individual property occupants to keep the pavement gardens neat.
But a tarred sidewalk on the other side of the road appears to be gradually swallowed by the lawns.
Two derelict open stands, lined with municipal trees, appear in dire need of clearing, their high grass and bushes bringing a “bad element” to the area.
The street is home to several double-storey houses. Some showed their age, others were well kept.
Property price tags, deeds records show, are buoyed by the presence of swimming pools.
A property search of houses recently sold in Sophiatown showed sales of between R750 000 and R1.5 million for homes with between three and four bedrooms.
One resident blamed poor property prices on the municipality, responsible, he said, for the “downfall” of the area.
“It would have been much better if empty plots and spaces were turned into parks and recreational areas and not left as bushes. Maintenance of roads and sidewalks as well as lighting could be a positive contributing factor,” he said.
“With so much history, Sophiatown can never be left to ruin just because we’re not rich. We need government help to enable us to keep our areas alive.”
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