KAREN VAN ROOYEN

13 March 2005

BUILDING ON OLD ROOTS: Plans are underfoot to revamp Joburg’s Diagonal Street and the area surrounding it

DIAGONAL Street, with its colourful traders and Victorian broekie lace, is the latest target of efforts to spruce up downtown Joburg.

But the proposed revamp has made tenants — some of whose families and businesses have been there for eight decades — jittery about their future.

The upgrade is being driven by developers of luxury apartments on the street. One of them, Alfonso Botha, said this week that a Section 21 company had been set up to oversee the upgrade. Because the plan was still in its infancy and sensitive, he did not want to give much detail.

"We are trying to restore the area to its original state, to be a culturally rich area. We really have some great and interesting shops — [it’s] an area with a lot of competition for the [Oriental] Plaza," he said.

Diagonal Street — the address of the Joburg Stock Exchange for 22 years — was once home to a thriving Indian community that existed alongside some of the country’s top companies.

But on Friday some shopkeepers expressed nervousness about the future, claiming the rehabilitation of the area would rid it of its history.

A trader who asked to be known only as Ibrahim referred to the plan as "forced removals, but of a different kind". "They told us they want to give shopkeepers bigger shops, but that means pushing the rent up."

Imtiaz Limbada said he was not opposed to development as long as rents stayed reasonable and it revived Diagonal Street. His book and gift shop had been in his family since his grandfather opened it in 1920.

"I am not against progress, but obviously to be moved out of something that you’ve built over 80 years in one month... The guns [in the community] will come out," he said.

"It’s more than a lifetime, it’s a couple of lifetimes."

Eric Itzkin of the Joburg council’s heritage services said the shopkeepers and residents of Diagonal Street were "what really makes the area".