Reiger Park is a
coloured
Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
township situated in
Boksburg in the
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality,
Gauteng,
South Africa. It was established as Stirtonville after the
Second World War when people influxed from rural areas seeking work on the
gold mines. In
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...
, due to the
apartheid government's policy of separate development, the Black people were moved to
Vosloorus, the
Indians
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
to Actonville and the coloured people were left to stay in Stirtonville, then renamed to Reiger Park.
The locals have given their own unofficial names to the different areas of Reiger Park, such as Jerusalem (due to the many churches in that area), Excuse Me (due to the houses being close together that neighbors say "bless you" when one sneezes), and Popcorn (a new area developed in the 1990s with homes popping up so fast that they were likened to popcorn). In
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, the ''Popcorn'' area experienced violent rent boycotts. In 2008, it was one of the sites of violence during the
anti-immigrant riots, beating and burning émigrés on streets described as "war zones".
References
Former Coloured townships in South Africa
Populated places in Ekurhuleni
Townships in Gauteng
{{Gauteng-geo-stub