Yeoville is a suburb whose history coincides with the early history of the founding of Johannesburg and is only 4 years younger than Johannesburg (YBCDT undated). “Yeoville was proclaimed a suburb in 1890 by Yeo Sherwell who came from Yeovil in the United Kingdom” (Ibid: unpaged). According to the YBCDT:
“The area was advertised as a 'sanitarium for the rich' in which the air was purer because it was up on a ridge overlooking the dirty, smoke-filled mining town that had sprung from nothing out of the (then) Transvaal bushveld. However, the rich did not buy into the suburb. Instead it became a multiclass area, one to which many poorer people living below the ridge in Doornfontein aspired. It was also a place which attracted many of the waves of migrants from abroad that came to South Africa seeking a new life” (YBCDT undated). Being an apartheid suburb, Yeoville was created to accommodate a mainly white, middle class population (Ibid). In the 1970s, Yeoville became a mainly Jewish suburb and an epitome of Jewish culture. At that particular time, Yeoville was designated as a “white only” area (Ibid). Over the years, Yeoville metamorphosed into a cosmopolitan suburb where racial mixing became acceptable despite apartheid (Ibid). In the 1980s Yeoville is shown to have shifted into a cosmopolitan suburb where Blacks and whites co-resided; and it has largely retained this cosmopolitan urbanism as it hosts a largely migrant population from different parts of Africa and South Africa. Yeoville’s population shifted from being 85% White in 1990 into being 90% Black by 1998 (Ibid).
Also, Yeoville is a suburb with a long history of activism against apartheid and the activist culture has been carried over to the post-apartheid era (Benit-Gbaffou 2006). Benit-Gbaffou (2006:303) observes that Yeoville is known to have quite a “vocal and energetic” Community Policing Forum because of the long history of political activism in the area.
Accentuating the representation of Yeoville as a lively neighbourhood is its history of conviviality. Yeoville has lively public spaces and elaborate drinking cultures; being host to many taverns and night clubs. Although now tainted by an element of criminality, the streets and public spaces of Yeoville remain spaces of conviviality and public connectivity; judging from the crowds that throng Rockey-Raleigh Street
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everyday (my observation). The YBCDT (undated) describes the emerging convivial culture in Yeoville in the early 1990s as follows:
“The establishment of a small, discreet club by a well-known music producer called Patric van Blerk resulted in the main business street through the two suburbs, named Raleigh St in Yeoville and Rockey St in Bellevue, becoming the bohemian cultural centre of South Africa, with a number of night spots and restaurants moving from nearby Hillbrow, till then the night-time entertainment Mecca of Johannesburg. Within two years, the high street was transformed from a quiet community street serving the local residents to an internationally-known cultural centre with restaurants, jazz bars, bookshops, arts and crafts outlets, trendy clothing outlets and record shops. On the down side, drug dealers and a criminal element also moved into the area, taking advantage of the opportunities arising out of the almost 24 hour buzz of activity in the street”.
The history of fear of violence and crime in Yeoville is sometimes co-related to white flight in the 1990 and the concomitant occupation of the neighbourhood by a largely Black population (cf. Beavon 2004). White flight and associated fears of violence were justified on events that took place during the 1990-1994 period of political transition from apartheid to post-apartheid South Africa (YBCDT undated). This period marked changing perceptions of Yeoville from one of a safe haven to one of a troubled space. The YBCDT notes:
“The death knell for that period was, ironically, the death of a Black Jamaican. Ridley Wright had married a South African exile and returned with her after 1990. He was owner of Crackers Deli, a popular cafe, and head of the Yeoville Trader's Association. In an altercation in which he attempted to protect a street corner drug dealer's wife from being abused by the drug dealer, he was fatally stabbed. It was downhill from there and by 2000, all of the shops and restaurants that gained fame in the 1980s were gone or transformed unrecognisably” (YBCDT undated).
Perceptions of Yeoville as a violent and crime ridden area have resulted neighbourhood disinvestment and urban decay (Ibid). Increasingly, Yeoville, alongside other Johannesburg innercity areas like Hillbrow, Berea, Joubert Park and Betrams, has come to resemble what Murray (2011) describes as an outcast ghetto. Crime statistics of Yeoville reflect the neighbourhood as inundated with violent crime. Table 1 shows the crime and violence situation in Yeoville by analysing statistics for murder, attempted murder, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) and common assault.
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Table 1: Yeoville crime statistics
Selected crime Average number of victims per annum from April 2003 – March 2011
Number of victims from April 2010 – March 2011
Murder 20 21
Attempted Murder 35 16
Assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH)
555 596
Common assault 497 477
These crime incidences are quite high, given that they took place in an area of 10 km2 with an estimated population of 40 000 people as of 2011.
The image of post-apartheid Yeoville is connected to the general image of Johannesburg, Gauteng and more generally, South Africa as places suffused by crime, violence and fear. The April 2010 to March 2011 security situation in Yeoville in relation to the situation in the Gauteng province sheds more light on the extent of violence (Table 2).
Table 2: Yeoville crime statistics versus Gauteng province crime statistics
Selected crime Yeoville’s contribution to Gauteng province total (percentage)
Murder 0.4%
Assault with attempt to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH)
1.3%
Common assault 0.9%
As a neighbourhood, Yeoville is arguably disproportionately visible in statistics on contact crime in the Gauteng province. For the size of its area and population, Yeoville arguably contributes a lot towards violence and crime in Gauteng. While Yeoville is only 10km2, Gauteng province is 18 179 km2.32 While Yeoville has an
estimated population of 40 000, Gauteng province has a population estimated at 11 191 700 by Stats SA in 2010. Yeoville therefore contains a population of about 0.4% of the population of Gauteng.33 The statistical significance of the situation of
violent crime in Yeoville is not only for the Gauteng province, but for South Africa, given that Gauteng has the biggest provincial population in South Africa,
32
See Recent GCRO report - Everrat, David, Graeme Gotz, Annsilla Nyar, Sizwe Phakathi, and Chris Wray. 2011. "Gauteng City Region Observatory: The city-region review 2011." edited by Maryn Storie: City of Johannesburg; University of Johannesburg; University of the Witwatersrand.
33 See GCRO report - ibid.
Analysed from SAPS crime statistics
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contributing 22.4% to the national population.34 These statistics qualify Yeoville as a crime and violence ridden area. Given this, it is urgent to examine community responses to fear of crime and violence in the neighbourhood.