Until the end of World War I, urban growth in Johannesburg proceeded haphazardly. But under the impact of a wave of militant struggles by black workers the state became determined to better manage the movement of Africans into the urban areas.

The growing demand for housing led the government to establish Orlando in 1931, and thousands of African families were evicted from urban slums in and around the city centre and moved there. The authorities described this as a "model native township" that was supposedly planned along the lines of a garden city. The new location, it promised, would...