ALBERTON’S first town hall was formally opened on April 14, 1920 with little enthusiasm or support from the residents. After all, there has been an outcry at what was regarded “a waste of public funds”.
Then there was the trouble bubbling on the mines, with white workers feeling that their own jobs might be in jeopardy – a very strong political tool during those years. Once the Chinese were gone, the fear was simply transferred to the black labourers and the fomenting of agitation continued. The results was the notorious white miners strike in 1922, which developed into fierce fighting.
Martial law was declared in town and the use of the town hall forbidden. Work was at a standstill as business closed their doors in fear of the rioting miners. With Alberton being a low income town, poverty again swept through the town. The only recorded violence in Alberton took place at the station, where miners tried to stop railwaymen from going to work. No lives where lost.
There seems to be no mention made of blacks in Alberton, apart from Krogh’s tent during the time of the Spanish Flu. However, towards the end 1922, some two dozen houses for blacks and the establishment of a location saw the light. In 1923 the Smuts government introduced influx control and the compulsory segregation of black and white. Poverty began to dig deeper into town, salaries were reduced and people were being laid off and inequalities were seen in salaries between white and black.
In 1923 Mr Snodgrass started the first soap factory on Stand 75. A welcome move creating jobs, however, the people soon complained about the terrible smell and within five months his license was suspended. Since that time Alberton has managed to maintain all her industries down-wind of the early residential suburbs.
Adding to the misery, came a plaque of rats in 1924 and it afforded people, especially children, the opportunity to earn pocket money being paid a tickey or three pence a piece for a dead rat, and a penny a pair for freshly killed mice.
Young boys in that time would earn a little pocket money holding the horses at the races in Germiston, something they returned to when the winter set in and the rat population dwindled.
Although the town hall was not accepted with great joy, it did offer the advantages of regular films being shown, and the weekly ox-wagon track to the cinema in Germiston was no longer needed. Having the luxury of electricity in the Town Hall might have spurred on the Health Committee to approach the Victoria Falls Power Company in Vereeniging about supplying the town with electricity.
In 1995 the Health Committee took another major leap and employed a woman for the first time. A Miss J Vermeulen was appointed as acting secretary and held the post for two months, before being superseded by a man at double the salary. However, she was maintained as a typist at her original salary. A lucky woman as white woman generally only entered the service sector in the 1940s.
The grading and gravelling of roads began in 1926 and this also brought another unexpected surprise to town. So arrives a motorcycle rider with the name of Dr Hope Trant. She and her elderly mother came to town and she became the first resident medical practitioner. With very little information on her, we know that she qualified in Dublin, and while living in Alberton she was both a lecturer and part-time student at the University of Witswatersrand, shuttling back and froth between her patients and the lecture rooms on her motorbike.
Dr Trant took it upon herself to teach the women in Alberton first aid, and after 10 years in town, leaving no descendants, she seemed to have vanished without a trace.
A third very prominent woman was Lill Bester, who had taken on the task of postmistress in 1917 and had run her little post office out of Overbury’s store. In 1926 a new Post Office was built and Lill went on to chalk up 21 years as Postmistress for Alberton.
Prior to 1917, post was collected on horse-back from Germiston by Little Charles, who brought the post to Mr Riordan’s house which also served as a general dealer, and pioneers collected their post there.
With a proper post office in place, the Committee was prompted to get Alberton numbered correctly and so 279 house numbers were ordered and a tender put out for a contractor to attach them to the house.
More exciting still for the residents was the electricity supply in 1928, providing street lights from 19:30 to 23:00 and for a few hours in the early mornings during winter months. Lights were switched off during moonlit nights.
By this time the plans for a water scheme was well under way, essential to the town with the wells and water-furrows being prone to pollution. The cost of the scheme seemed huge at the time, all of 8 000 pounds. The committee went to considerable lengths to offset the cost to consumers by reducing the electricity charge and making up any shortfalls by increasing rates. The cost to the public was a staggering six shillings per month per consumer.
*Taken from An Alberton Album, published by the Alberton Town Council 1997
