Johannesburg to get its first gurudwara

May 01, 2014 10:28 pm | Updated 10:28 pm IST - Johannesburg:

The first full-fledged gurudwara is to be built here following an eight-year battle with mainly white South African residents of an upmarket suburb.

The gurudwara has been run on a temporary basis so far.

But now the City of Johannesburg has agreed to rezone the property to allow construction of a place of worship.

African-born Sikh businessman Harbinder Singh Sethi, who donated the land said construction work on the 15-million-rand Gurudwara Sahib would start within the next two months.

“Our dream will now become a reality soon,” Mr. Sethi said.

The Parkmore Residents Association had objected to the construction of the gurudwara, with its 91 members alleging that Mr. Sethi had initially said he would build a house on the land but then used it for temple facilities.

Executive Manager of the Association, Brian Robertson, said the residents had objected to the proposed three golden domes on the gurudwara because “it did not fit into the aesthetic look of the rest of the buildings in the area“.

This has been a common refrain in many areas of South Africa, which were formerly reserved for the white community only, as Indian South Africans moving into these areas after the first democratic elections in 1994 attempted to build mosques and temples there.

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