Factbook of the Communes of Johannesburg City

[Johannesburg City]

Above: A map of Johannesburg (in red) showing its location within South Africa.
Basic Information
Long Form The Communes of Johannesburg City
Short Form Johannesburg
Abbreviation CJC
Demonym Johannesburger
Motto Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible (De Facto)
Main Language English
World Assembly Status Non-Member
Economic Rating Developing
Civil Rights Rating Excellent
Political Freedoms Excellent
Time Zone SAST (GMT+2)
Daylight Saving Not Used
Internet TLD .jhb
Calling Code +42
Currency Labour Credit
Symbols
Animal Wild Cat
Bird Hadeda Ibis
Tree Jacaranda
Emblem

[Johannesburg City]

History

Early History
The region surrounding Johannesburg (the Highveld) was originally inhabited by San tribes. By the 13^th century, groups of Bantu-speaking people started moving southwards from central Africa and encroached on the indigenous San population. By the mid to late 18^th century, the broader region was densely settled by various Sotho-Tswana communities (one linguistic branch of Bantu-speakers), whose villages, towns, chiefdoms and kingdoms stretched from what is now Botswana in the west, to present day Lesotho in the south, to the present day Pedi areas of the northern Transvaal. Early in the 19^th century, events in the rest of the region (and the world) began affecting life on the Highveld. Two chains of events in particular had the most profound effects: the Mfeqane and the Great Trek.

[Johannesburg City]

The Mfeqane
In the late 18^th century, Prince Senzangakhona kaJama of the amaZulu in modern day KwaZulu-Natal had an illegitimate child. According to Zulu tradition, Senzangakhona had indulged in Ukuhlobonga, "the Pleasure of the Road", with a Langeni woman named Nandi. Ukuhlobonga was a custom among the people of the region that allowed unmarried people to relieve sexual tension through non-penetrative intercourse. Of course, things often got out of hand, and penetration did sometimes occur: this was one of those cases. Nandi soon became pregnant and a message was delivered to the Zulu court to inform Senzangakhona. Mduli, Senzangakhona's uncle, tried to deny the pregnancy by saying that Nandi had been infected with an intestinal beetle called a "Shaka" that caused the belly to expand as if the person was pregnant. When the baby arrived, obviously, the truth could no longer be hidden and the Langeni sent a message to Senzangakhona (whose father, Jama, had died during Nandi's pregnancy, leaving him as King) telling him to "come fetch his beetle". The child was therefore named "Shaka". After a turbulent childhood, Shaka eventually succeeded to the Zulu throne as King Shaka KaSenzangakhona, with some help from King Dingiswayo, the leader of the Mthethwa Confederacy of which the Zulu (at that stage, a relatively minor clan) were part. Shaka soon got about to completely re-organising the Zulu army: replacing the long javelins of previous times with short, stabbing spears called "Iklwas", ordering his troops to march barefoot to increase their marching speed and toughen them up, devising new troop formations, and instituting a system of age-based regiments called impis. Around this time, a long simmering war with the Ndwandwes starting turning against the Mthethwas, and King Dingiswayo was betrayed and murdered by the forces of King Zwide of the Ndwandwes. Zwide would have completely overrun the Mthethwas were it not for the actions of Shaka, who managed to contain their offensive and push them back into their own borders. Shaka then took to the task of re-organising the shattered Mthethwa Confederacy under his own leadership -- a move that established Zulu hegemony over the region. Eventually the Mthethwas, now under Zulu leadership, managed to crush the Ndwandwes and establish their own empire in the region. The resultant mass displacement of many of the other groups living in the region at the time is known as the Mfeqane, the Crushing. Some clans fled as far afield as the shores of Lake Victoria in Central East Africa. In the history of Johannesburg, however, the most important part of this mass displacement was the Matabele move north. Mzilikazi Kumalo, previously one of Shaka's trusted generals, eventually betrayed Shaka. According to tradition, Shaka started acting arrogantly towards Mzilikazi, who then stopped paying his tribute to the King in response. Knowing that soon Shaka would send his impis, Mzilikazi decided to flee; taking his people, the Matabele, north-east into the Highveld. Mzilikazi pushed aside all local resistance, utterly devastating the cities and villages of the Sotho-Tswana people of the region. Eventually, deciding he was still too close to Shaka, he moved on further north -- into modern day Zimbabwe -- but his actions had left the region completely unprepared for what would happen next...

[Johannesburg City]

The Great Trek
In 1803, Britain declared war on Napoleon's France. Napoleon managed to take control of much of Europe during his campaigns: including the Netherlands. The Dutch has long maintained a colony on the southern tip of the African continent, called the Cape Colony. This colony was vital for the sea route between Europe and Asia; the Suez canal hadn't yet been built. The Cape Colony had originally been founded in 1652 as "Goede Hoop" (Good Hope), a half-way stopover for the "Verenigde Oos-Indiesche Compagnie" (United East-India Company, usually known in English as the Dutch East India Company). Fearing that Napoleon would gain control of the route, and that he would therefore be able to threaten Britain's colonies in India, the British took control of the colony. It was actually the second time that they had taken control of the Cape; but this time they were there to stay. The British started to implement reforms in the colony, including moving towards the eventual abolition of slavery -- a move that angered many of the conservative Dutch farmers in the region. In 1820, the British brought in thousands of English speaking settlers, and began Anglicising the colony; a move that further alienated the Dutch speakers. These factors, combined with a shortage of land in the colony, resulted in the Great Trek. It started in the 1830s, when Piet Retief, eventual early leader of the Trek, published a list of grievances and encouraged his fellow Dutch speakers to join him if these grievances were not dealt with. They were ignored, and Retief therefore began organising his Trek. In 1835, the Voortrekkers, as they were known, began their exodus. The British at first didn't believe that any mass migration was going to take place; it was illegal, in any case. They were taken by surprise when thousands of Dutch farmers crossed the Orange River, the northern border of the colony. By the time soldiers had arrived to arrest the trekkers, they were all over the river and therefore outside of the colony's jurisdiction; the British decided not to follow them.

Eventually, three Voortrekker Republics were established: one in modern day KwaZulu-Natal, called Natalia; one south of the Vaal river, called the Oranje Vrystaat; and one north of the Vaal river, called the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (South African Republic), usually known as the Transvaal or the ZAR. The Transvaal included most of the Highveld, where, in 1886, massive gold reserves were discovered. One chapter in the region's history had closed, the next was about to begin...

[Johannesburg City]

The Gold Rush
In 1886, George Harrison, an Australian prospector, discovered an outcrop of gold bearing rock in the Witwatersrand region of the Highveld. He declared his find to the Transvaal's government, and the area was declared open. A tent town known as Ferrera's Camp soon emerged as thousands of people from all over the world flocked to the Highveld hoping to make their fortunes. Ferreira's camp was soon formalised by the Transvaal's government as the city of Johannesburg. Within ten years it had already become the largest city in South Africa, surpassing Cape Town, which was more than 200 years older. With the discovery of gold, new tensions would emerge between the people who now called themselves Afrikaners (and occasionally Boers), and their former colonial masters, the British.

The Anglo-Boer War
The Afrikaners, being as conservative as they were, were dismayed by the sheer number of immigrants who arrived after the gold rush; and by their (much more liberal) approaches to life. This resentment lead to repressive measures such as the imposition of heavy taxes and the denial of voting rights to the "Uitlanders" (Foreigners). In response to this, the Uitlander community (consisting mostly of British, American, Australian, Polish, Portuguese and Canadian immigrants), as well as many mine owners (most of the gold mines were owned by British citizens) began to put pressure on the British government to intervene on their behalf. The then Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes, saw this as an excuse to take control of the Transvaal and bring the goldfields under British administration. He organised the Jameson Raid, a poorly co-ordinated false-flag operation that resulted in the Afrikaners declaring war on the British: that was exactly what Rhodes had wanted them to do. The war itself was fought for quite a while longer than anyone had anticipated: it was the first "modern war", involving what was (at the time) state of the art weaponry, and the fact that both sides were armed with this sort of weaponry (as opposed to the usual colonial engagements against poorly armed native Africans) meant that the clear and quick victory the British had hoped for never materialised. Instead, the conventional stage of the war dragged on for two years; and even after the peace treaty was signed, the British had to deal with an insurgency until 1903. In the end, however, Britain prevailed, and the Transvaal and Orange Free State became British colonies.

One Hundred Years Post-1910
In 1910, Britain granted the four South African colonies (The Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State) independent dominion status; putting South Africa on par with Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In 1936, the Statute of Westminster was passed, granting all the Dominions full sovereignty. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, sparking World War II. The Prime Minister at the time, Barry Hertzog, was opposed to joining the war and wanted to remain neutral; his party, however, opposed him and he was forced to resign. The new Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, declared war on Germany on the same day he took the oath of office. South African troops were involved in many of the major campaigns of the western theatre, including the North African, Italian and Normandy campaigns. However, many of the Afrikaners (who by then were speaking Afrikaans, a language that had derived from Dutch during the previous century), were highly racist and sympathised with Nazi Germany. This resulted in the National Party, an Afrikaner Nationalist party, sweeping to power by a landslide in 1948. They soon began strengthening segregation in South Africa. After completely disenfranchising non-white South Africans (who, although forming the majority of South Africans, had for the most part been denied the vote), they instituted a policy called Apartheid, which had the ultimate goal of making non-whites non-citizens by creating "independent" homelands for the non-whites of South Africa.

In 1962, hardline factions within the National Party took control and began a systematic genocide of the non-white population of South Africa. By then, however, even most Afrikaners had had enough. In 1972, exactly ten years after the genocide began, a massive revolution swept through South Africa. The National Party lost all power. The country itself started disintegrating after that. It was in 1972, on the seventh of September, that Johannesburg declared independence. A constitution was drawn up and it came into effect in 1975. Johannesburg soon became one of the most influential states of the former-South Africa.

[Johannesburg City]

2010 -- The Revolution
By 2010, however, the government of Johannesburg was going the same way as that of old South Africa. Although not racist, it was becoming increasingly authoritarian, detached and elitist. At the same time, Anarchist movements in Johannesburg were becoming increasingly popular. One group in particular, the Anarchist Socialist Front for the Liberation of Johannesburg (ASFLJ) was becoming extremely influential. On September 26, 2010, all out revolution broke out. The ASFLJ took centre-stage as its secretly armed and trained revolutionary militias successfully took on the Johannesburg Municipal Defence Force. By the evening of that very day, the last Mayor of the Sovereign Municipality of Johannesburg capitulated, dissolved the government, and fled to the USA. By the end of the next day, a collective of Anarchist Communes had been established and Johannesburg entered a new era.

[Johannesburg City]

Political Structure

Johannesburg is Anarchist, and as such has no government. Each neighbourhood is an autonomous (though federated) commune with its own Communal Council. Every member of a commune may participate in the meetings of its council. Councils decide on matters on a non-coercive basis. They may not regulate lifestyles or do anything that will interfere with the human rights of its members; they may, however, decide on other issues, such as the building of communal facilities, housing or infrastructure, for example.

Each Communal Council elects a delegate to represent it at a higher level council, the three levels being: Communal Council, Ward Council, City Council. Ward Councils elect delegates to the City Council. Higher level councils have similar powers to those of the Communal Councils, but over wider areas. Each elected delegate to one of these councils may be recalled at any time in order that the sending council is always adequately represented.

There is no legal system in the traditional sense. Everyone may do whatever they want as long as doing so doesn't infringe on the right of others to do the same. Infringing on someone's rights results in one being put before an ad-hoc tribunal which gathers evidence and may pass sentence. Refusal to abide by this sentence results in complete ostracism until it is served. A sentence passed by one of these tribunals will usually be along the lines of community service, or, if psychological disturbances turn out to be the reason, commitment to a Psychiatric Institution. There are no prisons in Johannesburg.