The Workers' Museum

About The Workers' Museum

The Workers' Museum in Newtown, Johannesburg, is a poignant heritage site that uncovers the brutal realities of the migrant labor system in South Africa. Housed in a restored 1913 municipal compound, it stands as one of the last remaining intact examples of a municipal migrant labor hostel. The museum serves as a powerful memorial to the hundreds of thousands of African men who were uprooted from rural homelands and neighboring countries to build Johannesburg’s infrastructure under inhumane, segregated conditions.