Fietas Museum

Fietas Museum was opened on 24 September 2013, the museum is located in Pageview, Gauteng, South Africa.[1] [2] The building that the museum is housed in is one of the few to survive the forced removals under the Group Areas Act and was declared a Heritage resource in 2007.[1]

Fietas Museum

Fietas Museum
Established	24 September 2013
Location	25 14th street, Pageview, Johannesburg
Coordinates	26.196552°S 28.018842°E
Type	Apartheid
Curator	Salma Patel
Website	http://www.gauteng.net/attractions/attraction-fietas-museu-mmemory-in-action-mia

Fietas

Fietas was the unofficial name given to the suburb of Pageview in its heyday between 1940 and 1965. During apartheid, the government attempted to exert control over the growing 'non-White' population of Johannesburg, by setting up 'locations' along racial lines.[1]

Pageview was initially earmarked for 'Malay', 'Cape Coloured' and 'Coloured' people. By the 1940s, the population had become predominantly 'Indian' and 14th Street into a popular shopping destination but this came to the attention of the government and the area was re-zoned as a whites only area under the Group Areas Act.[1] 14th street in particular was a subject of interest in one of Nat Nakasa's writings. The following quote appears on the windows of the museum entrance doors:

Well-known Nationalists come all the way from the platteland to buy in Fourteenth Street. It is possible to find members of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange or a City Councillor’s wife waiting to be served after an African labourer in Fourteenth Street.

— QUITE A PLACE, FOURTEENTH STREET[3]

References

1. "Blue Plaque Celebrates Fietas". Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
2. "Fietas Museum - Memory in Action". Sophiatown Life. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
3. Nakasa, Nathaniel (2005). "Quite a place, Fourteenth street". In Patel, Essop (ed.). The World of Nat Nakasa. Picador Africa. p. 17. ISBN 9781770100190.