Decaying Fordsburg in danger of turning historic Oriental Plaza into ‘a dinosaur’

For the last 50 years, city dwellers have been going to the Oriental Plaza to buy from a cornucopia of fabric shops, eat samoosas, drink a quick lassi or find the perfect wedding suit.

But this iconic part of the city is in danger of becoming “a dinosaur”, says plaza chairman Dhiren Parbhoo, all because of the degradation of the entire Fordsburg precinct.

The Oriental Plaza was founded in the 1970s after traders from South Africa’s Indian community were forcibly removed by the apartheid government from Pageview’s 14th Street. They set up their once-thriving businesses on the spot where the plaza now stands.

Inside the imposing structure is Red Square, a favourite meeting place for political protest movements during the 1940s and 50s. The red tiles on the floor of the south mall of the plaza (completed in 1976) are a perfect reminder of the rich political history of the area. Nelson Mandela launched the first mass anti-apartheid campaign from the square in 1952.

What makes the plaza unique is that it is owned by the shop owners in the complex.

We visited on a Friday afternoon, and while the shopkeepers and plaza staff were all over the place, customers were not.

Parbhoo says the general degradation of Fordsburg – potholed roads, leaking water pipes, dumped rubbish and bylaw violations – is chasing people away from the plaza and the area in general.

Stolen cables and drugs

Parbhoo took us on a walk around the plaza to show just how bad the disrepair is. On Dolly Rathebe Street, which runs under one of the plaza buildings, we found several crates of mouldy strawberries dumped on the pavement. A Joburg Water repair job has still not been completed. The trench dug for the repairs was left unfilled, and vagrants started making fires in it.

Parbhoo asked a team of workers from the plaza to fill it in. “People were smoking drugs, and we found holes where they stored stolen cables,” he said.

A nearby street corner is littered with burst black rubbish bags. Countless empty cigarette packets spill out of the bags, as well as office documents and letterheads.

Parbhoo’s biggest concern is that the general degradation of Fordsburg, and the fact that people do not feel safe there, will lead to the plaza dropping off everyone’s radar.

“These issues are deterring people from coming here. The Fordsburg Square area was once a vibrant place to go for a meal on a Friday night, now it’s dead at 7pm.

“While we focus on the security inside the plaza, we want to focus on the external issues as well.

“People simply go to safer places to shop. Which is why we want to work in collaboration with the city agencies; we are not asking for much, and we pay our rates and levies.”

“If we all get together to fix Fordsburg, it will be safe for everyone. Not fixing it means the loss of a very dynamic cross-cultural experience,” he said.

Parbhoo is pushing for the establishment of a Fordsburg Improvement District Forum so that business owners in the area – who are in danger of losing their livelihoods if the area further deteriorates – can work with City agencies to uplift the suburb.

“People have volunteered their services, and we clean up the area every three days, and it’s back to square one the very next day.

“Crime has escalated, people are sleeping on the roads and building illegal structures. Bylaws are violated every day, and we might not be able to reverse this trend,” he said.

“We want a long-term solution with the City where there is a partnership and bylaws are enforced. If we are successful, we will have economic prosperity which benefits everyone.”

Maintenance of Fordsburg

In response to questions about the state of the roads in Fordsburg, the Joburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) Mpho Maruping said the JRA depot in Region F undertakes reactive maintenance in Fordsburg and Mayfair as queries come in from the ward councillor and residents and conducts normal routine road inspections.

“Extensive stormwater maintenance in Fordsburg and Mayfair is scheduled to start in July 2026 during winter, as we anticipate minimal disruptions resulting from weather conditions.

“The maintenance work will include repairing damaged kerb inlets and covers, replacing manhole covers, pothole repairs, and Joburg Water reinstatements where water leaks have been addressed, all of which are critical short-term measures to address road defects and ensure the safety of road users,” Maruping said.

However, he said old water infrastructure had caused numerous pipe bursts which affected the road surface. JW will need to replace those pipes, he said.

“Historically, the area was designed with very little sub-surface/ underground stormwater drainage systems, which affects the road surface due to surface run-off when it rains.

“The existing stormwater capacity cannot handle the amount of run-off due to population influx coupled with illegal dumping and littering into the stormwater drains, which result in flooding and the formation of potholes,” Maruping said.

Remedial work, such as new and bigger-diameter underground stormwater pipes and manholes to collect all run-off, the construction of new road layers and the resurfacing of about 60% of roads in Fordsburg can only be addressed if there was an available budget.

In response to questions, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department said only that patrols are being carried out in the area. No further details were forthcoming. DM

This story is produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom serving the people of Johannesburg.