First gurudwara in Joburg to be built after eight-year battle

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 Parkmore Residents Association had consistently lodged objections to the construction of the gurudwara on land donated by African-born Sikh businessman Harbinder Singh Sethi.
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.
Sethi 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," Sethi said.

The Parkmore community had also objected to the construction of the gurudwara, with its 91 members alleging that 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.

Sethi said the approval had lifted a great burden off his shoulders as he and his family had vowed to build a gurudwara for the growing Sikh community in Johannesburg on the land that he had donated for the purpose.