The Making of a Good White - E-thesis - Helsinki.fi

Consequently, a high degree of dependency developed in the suburb, and
more and more EGV residents became institutionalised, responding less
and less to welfare efforts.
The poor white suburbs became ever more clearly, and incorrectly,
stigmatised as institutions where the white misfits were stored away. In
reality, the aging, middle-class-oriented first generation co-existed uncomfortably
with the ’problem cases’.
In the 1970s the Afrikanerdom began to disperse politically and spiritually.
In the 1980s it was clear that there would be no return to the volk’s
previous unity (see Adam 1979: 129, Giliomee 1979a: 124, De Klerk
1975). This disillusionment with apartheid was also manifested in Epping
Garden Village. Although the control of the boundaries of the category
of a ‘good white’ with its ensuing supervision of the social body and
urban space was still strict in the beginning of this era, it was gradually
slackened as the hopelessness of overall upliftment for everyone became
evident.
The Arrival of Those Who ‘Could not Lift
Themselves Up’: 1960-1990
Johann Swanepoel was born near Port Elisabeth in 1954, and moved to
Epping Garden Village with his parents and thirteen siblings in the 1970s.
His father was an alcoholic tyrant, and his mother, despite her sweet nature,
often lost patience with her husband. Consequently, she often wore
nasty bruises when Johann’s father had used his fists to silence her. It is
hard to imagine the Swanepoels being allowed into Epping Garden Village
in the 1940s or early 1950s. In the 1970s, however, they were given
a four-bedroom house next to the Mulders.
Although the family was given a house on the precondition that they
would be rehabilitated, the social workers soon realised that the Swanepoels
were a lost cause. Epping Garden Village was the best place to hide
these individuals: there at least they could benefit from the evidently effective
infrastructure designed to help them.
In the 1950s and 1960s tension between neighbours grew, and the area
became a less pleasant place. There was more gossip, and the social workers’
methods grew more prescriptive as the residents became increasingly
institutionalised. Problematic children were taken from their parents and
conversely, problematic parents lost their children. ‘Work-shy’ men were
sent to work colonies. Consequent to the harsh supervision and gossip,
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