Lenasia, Gauteng

Lenasia Lenz
Lenasia Show map of Gauteng Lenasia Show map of South Africa Lenasia Show map of Africa  Lenasia shown within Gauteng
Location within Greater Johannesburg  Lenasia
Coordinates: 26°19′1″S 27°49′40″E / 26.31694°S 27.82778°E / -26.31694; 27.82778Coordinates: 26°19′1″S 27°49′40″E / 26.31694°S 27.82778°E / -26.31694; 27.82778
Country	South Africa
Province	Gauteng
Municipality	City of Johannesburg
Area
• Total	20.28 km2 (7.83 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	89,714
• Density	4,400/km2 (11,000/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	40.4%
• Coloured	2.6%
• Indian/Asian	55.9%
• White	0.2%
• Other	0.9%
First languages (2011)
• English	55.4%
• Zulu	8.8%
• Tswana	8.2%
• Sotho	6.4%
• Other	21.2%
Postal code (street)	1821
PO box	1827
Area code	011

Lenasia is a formerly exclusively Indian township south of Soweto in Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Lenasia is approximately 35 kilometres southwest of the Johannesburg central business district and 45 kilometres south of the Sandton central business district.

Weather in Lenasia is typically 2-3 degrees cooler than central Johannesburg due to the town being situated within a valley, which also means that north-facing slopes can be used for low-cost housing.

Apartheid-era planners situated the group area for Johannesburg's Indians near the Lenz Military Base. The name "Lenasia" is thought to be a combination of the words "Lenz" and "Asia". The Lenz in question was one Captain Lenz who owned the original plot on which Lenasia is situated. Many of its early residents were forcibly removed under the Group Areas Act from Pageview (aka. Fietas) and Fordsburg, non-racial areas close to the Johannesburg city centre, to Lenasia. As segregation grew it became the largest place where people of Indian extraction could legally live in the Transvaal Province.

The community of Lenasia played a prominent role in opposing the national tri-cameral elections held in 1984 and 1989 under the apartheid era National Party government. This was an attempt to create separate legislative assemblies in South Africa for Whites, Indians and Coloureds in order to entrench racial segregation and perpetuate the disenfranchisement of the African majority in South Africa. Lenasia also played a role in the creation and activities of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the mass democratic movement that opposed apartheid in the 1980s and early 1990s before the unbanning of the African National Congress. Many of Lenasia's residents played a prominent role in the UDF structures and the broader anti-apartheid movement. Some of these activists became senior political figures after the first national democratic elections in 1994.