Flashback Thursday: 18 November 1983
Imagine building a house for a meagre R17 500 or getting a free ride to do your Christmas shopping.
It seems it all happened in Maraisburg as reported on in the Record of 18 November 1983.
Journalist Rod McGillivray investigated a new housing scheme that showed its head in Maraisburg and surrounds. For a meagre R17 500, a company would build you a new house that included a lounge, dining room, three bedrooms (of which one bedroom would have an adjoined dressing room), a study, kitchen, entrance hall and garage. McGillivray’s investigation confirmed that the entire setup, including price, is legitimate. However, there were a few rules and additional costs that weren’t mentioned. For example, the price of building the house excluded the acquisition of a stand. Although the house could be financed through the company, the stand could not. Those using this company to build their houses had to pay R500 up front for developments to commence. They had to pay another R1 200 out of their pockets before moving into their new house.
In other news, Hyperama offered senior residents of Maraisburg a free trip to their stores to do their Christmas shopping. They had to book and later board a bus that waited for them at the Maraisburg community centre. Refreshments were served to them at Hyperama before their shopping commenced.
The Record front page, sporting a previous design of the infamous black and red Roodepoort Record logo, also stated that the Record is a magazine. A ‘magazine’, according to the Mirriam Webster online dictionary, “is a type of thin book with a paper cover that publishes stories, essays, pictures etcetera on a weekly or monthly basis”.
Do you regard the Record as a magazine? Send your comment to Mathilde Myburgh at mathildem@caxton.co.za or via twitter @kritiek_aster.
