Turffontein Concentration Camp Memorial

During the South African War of 1899-1902, there were 115 white concentration camps around the country, most of which were in the old Transvaal. The biggest in Johannesburg was at the Turffontein Race Course, which originally started as a camp at the Mayfair School, but soon ran out of space. It housed around 5000 people, of whom 700 died and were buried in Maluti Street, Winchester Hills, on a farm called Klipriviersberg, belonging to Piet Meyer.

This cemetery was vandalized by an anti-Ossewa Brandwag group during the Second World War. The monument was desecrated three times by vandals but was repaired before the official opening by the Minister of Justice B J Vorster on 10th October 1962. The Germiston Mutual Funeral Society donated a marble slab and incorporated in the monument was a list of the names of the deceased.
Groups of women and children from surrounding farms began arriving as refugees in Johannesburg in early December 1901 . As the camp at Turffontein had not yet been completed, the new arrivals were temporarily accommodated in other parts of town. The Turffontein camp began to receive its first occupants in mid-December, but only opened officially in February 1901.

The camp consisted of wood and iron sheds laid out around the Turffontein race-track. Along the race-track itself there were tents. July 1901 was the month when the camp accommodated its largest number of in-mates: 3 666. Those who entered the camp voluntarily initially enjoyed better rations than those brought there by force. In terms of camp deaths, the worst month experienced by in mates at the Turffontein Concentration Camp was April 1901, when 90 deaths were recorded. A former child inmate and camp survivor, Mrs M C van Zyl, recalled that the dead were brought to the camp mortuary, where coffins were made. These were loaded onto a wagon for transportation to the cemetery. On one day alone, fifteen coffins were loaded on the wagon.