We’ve introduced a “Reflections” section on the Daveyton website. For research, history and education.
Our first contributor is Dr @dirk_reynders
Visit www.madeindaveyton.co.za
One of the first images of Benoni(courtesy of Noval Family)
Discovery Of Gold
Benoni City’s existence is primarily due the discovery of gold in 1887, elaborated upon below, where the mines were subsequently concentrated in the Blesbokspruit Valley from the Kleinfontein Dam eastwards towards Van Ryn and Modderfontein Deep Level mines and for several kilometres to the south of the Kleinfontein Dam, mainly to the west of Snake Road. At the time, the mining industry and supporting infrastructure and businesses attracted people from all walks of life and include those from Europe, America, Australia as well as the local Boer, Blacks, Coloreds and Indians and thus makes modern Benoni a veritable stewing-pot of races, creeds and religions.
By early 1887 the gold reef discovered in Johannesburg the previous year had been followed by prospectors to outcrops on the Kleinfontein, Vlakfontein and Modderfontein farms in the Benoni area and to that same piece of “uitvalgrond” that had been named Benoni by Mr. Rissik and which, had in the meantime, been leased to a Mr. E. W. Noyce by the Republican Government in 1885. There was a clause in this lease however that stated that should gold be discovered on the property, Mr. Noyce’s lease would be cancelled; and it was here, ironically, in the North-Eastern corner that gold was discovered early in 1887 after which the Benoni farm was proclaimed to be gold-bearing land, some time later on the 9th May 1888. Nevertheless, the intrepid Mr Noyce became one of the Directors of the Benoni Gold-Mining Company which subsequently laid claims on the farm and which was promulgated in September 1887. This was the first registered gold mine in the Benoni area.
In September 1887, gold was discovered on the Modderfontein Farm and the Chimes Mine was established by Cornish men. The mining village became known as “Little Cornwall” for a time. The famous Van Ryn and Modderfontein series mines later established here went on towards some very successful discoveries.
We have explored township taste, intellect, and histories through fashion and architecture. Now we turn to interiors.
But first - music.
Not as background. As evidence. As chronology. A living record of how cosmopolitan township culture has always been, restless, literate, tuned in to the world - despite everything the place tried to do to our minds.
“Where there is music, you find no evil” – Dr Ramakgobotla Johnny Mekoa.
Dr Ramakgobotla Johnny Mekoa was a highly influential South African jazz trumpeter and educator who dedicated his life to developing young musicians, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds. He served on the SAMRO Foundation board (1996–2011), helped establish key initiatives like the Standard Bank Youth Jazz Festival, and contributed to music education through various institutions.
Despite being denied formal training under apartheid, he built his career through perseverance, later earning a music degree and a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1994, he founded the Music Academy of Gauteng, which became a leading centre for jazz education.
Mekoa received numerous awards, including the 2015 ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts Advocacy, and international recognition for his contributions to jazz. Remembered for his leadership and mentorship, he left a lasting legacy in South Africa’s cultural and musical landscape.
On Archives
The true power of erasure lies not just in what is removed, but in how what remains is captioned, how it circulates, carried by old or new algorithms, and how it is organized: what meaning gets assigned to it, and whether it makes it into “history” at all.
For archives to make way for a pluriversal future, the historical record must be interrogated at every point of its construction:
1. Whose faces appear in the collection?
Visibility is not inclusion.
2. Who held the camera?
Authorship is not a footnote.
3. Who controls how the record travels?
The platform and algorithms(old or new) are never neutral.
4. Who authors the meaning?
Preservation is the least of it. Interpretation is where history is written and rewritten.
