Special Report Transcript Episode 26, Section 5, Time 27:11

In 1912 a mister S. Papenfus divided and sold his farm. The land was too far from the centre of Johannesburg to be desirable to whites so he parcelled it out to black and coloured families. The resulting township was named after his wife, Alexandra Papenfus. Although no one knows the exact figure estimates suggest that today around 350 000 people live on this rectangular shaped one and a half square kilometres of land that slopes down to the banks of the Jukskei river. Alex is a sore thumb, a thorn in the side of the affluent suburbia which surrounds it. A reminder perhaps of the price of privilege. The history of this township since 1912 reflects the history of struggle in South Africa at large. As in the rest of the country, the 1980s in Alexandra saw heightened militancy and organisation from the people and increased chaos and bloodshed inflicted by the state. The death of Isaac Diradingwe was the last straw. Diradingwe’s funeral took place on Saturday the 15th of February, 1986. After the burial angry youth clashed with heavily armed police. This was the start of the six day war.

Notes: Historical photographs, Alex; Alex now; 1976 uprising footage; Alex, 1986; Police tanks in Alex