A Story of Defiance

Loading player...

This podcast revolves around John Ernstzen, a ‘deep trade unionist from the university of the workers’ who spent many of his early years in District Six and in Warwick Street, Woodstock.

In the 1980s, John played a major role in unifying the Cape Town Municipal Worker’s Association and its national counterpart - work which was crucial to the formation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

You will hear his stories of defiance and his motivation for spending his life fighting for the betterment of the people.

Guest: John Henry Ernstzen
Story and narration: Lisa Hendricks
Featuring: Ayanda Mpono
Sound Engineer: Ivor Solomons
Music by Zolani Mfihlo

The oral history programme is funded by the Mellon Foundation.

14 Apr 2023 English South Africa History · Documentary

Other recent episodes

Broken Palaces

David Bam said it perfectly, they lived in the “broken palaces” of District Six. When everyone was packing up their belongings, loading them onto trucks and arriving at locations alien to them, the Bam family stayed behind, defying The Group. As demolitions were taking place, they moved from one “broken…

22 Nov 7 min

The Dry Docks of District Six

Why did they call it the “Dry Docks” of District Six? Was it because so many stevedores lived there? Was it because they had a view of the Cape Town harbour? Or was it because the streets in the area were named after historic dockyards in England? We may never…

21 Nov 10 min

The Separate Amenities Act

In 1948, the National Party won the election, and South Africa became known as an Apartheid State. New segregationist laws were introduced, people were racially classified, and public spaces were categorised as European and Non-European. In this podcast, you will hear some of our interviewees reflect on their experience of…

20 Nov 20 min

Leaving Luyolo

Leaving Luyolo tells the story of the 1965 forced removals from Luyolo, a township located on the Simon’s Town mountains overlooking Long Beach. Established in 1896, Luyolo’s first residents were labourers working on the Southern Railway line. They were young single men living in dormitory-style housing units. By the late…

19 Nov 13 min

The Kommetjie of Old

This is the story of Jacob and Louisa Daniels from Kommetjie, a small coastal village on the South Peninsula of the Cape. Jacob Daniels first arrived in Kommetjie in 1918. By 1967, he married Louisa, and together they raised a family of twelve children who enjoyed all the natural beauty…

18 Nov 9 min

All episodes