Forest Town, Gauteng

Forest Town, as the name implies, is a leafy suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies between the busy thoroughfares of Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road, and is bordered to one side by the Johannesburg Zoo.

Forest Town
Forest Town
Forest Town
Coordinates: 26.172°S 28.037°E / -26.172; 28.037
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceGauteng
MunicipalityCity of Johannesburg
Main PlaceJohannesburg
Established1908
Area
 • Total0.64 km2 (0.25 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total1,072
 • Density1,700/km2 (4,300/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
 • Black African29.4%
 • Coloured1.2%
 • Indian/Asian7.7%
 • White58.8%
 • Other2.9%
First languages (2011)
 • English65.5%
 • Afrikaans9.5%
 • Zulu5.5%
 • Tswana3.1%
 • Other16.4%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
2193

History

The suburb was first surveyed on land called Sachsenwald, now known as Saxonwold, in 1908.[2] The name of the suburb is derived from the Sachsenwald plantation.[2]

Forest Town is well known as the scene of a high profile police raid, the Forest Town raid, on a gay party in 1966, which triggered a moral panic and led to the Apartheid government passing the Immorality Amendment Bill of 1967.[3] The Bill criminalised all sexual activity between men, as well as extending the legislation to include lesbians. Following South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994, all discriminatory legislation was repealed.

In 2005, the Forest Town home of Jacob Zuma, at that time deputy president of South Africa, was raided by the Scorpions in order to obtain documents for his corruption trial.[4] Jacob Zuma, now a former president of South Africa, is currently under investigation for fraud, money laundering, racketeering, and a host of other criminal charges.

References
  1. "Sub Place Forest Town". Census 2011.
  2. Raper, Peter E.; Moller, Lucie A.; du Plessis, Theodorus L. (2014). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. 1412. ISBN 9781868425501.
  3. Pushparagavan, Dixson. "The History of LGBT Legislation". South African History Online. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  4. "Raids on Zuma and Shaik continue". Mail & Guardian. 18 Aug 2005.


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