Mining companies needed a cheap workforce, and for that young black men were brought from the interiors, housed in hostels, and made to work in the mines, their rights to enter the “white” city restricted severely. The blacks lived in townships far from the city. Makeshift and presumed temporary and without character, one was simply called south-west township, which later got abbreviated to SoWeTo, or Soweto. Van Riebeeck’s hedge was made solid at last.
