Our story

Oriental Plaza is a trader-owned shopping centre in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, trading since 1974. Locals come for fabric, bridal and matric dance wear, jewellery, perfumes, footwear and food, all sold by the people who own the shops.

It was built by, and is still run by, the traders who lost their original Pageview shopping street to forced removals.

Our mission

To bring Johannesburg together under one roof, offering the variety, value and personal service of hundreds of independent traders, in a welcoming, safe and authentic space that celebrates the Plaza's heritage every day.

Our vision

To be South Africa's most-loved heritage marketplace: a living landmark where generations of traders thrive, families feel at home, and the story of Fordsburg is shared with pride for the next fifty years and beyond.

Moved, and rebuilt

The traders who opened Oriental Plaza did not choose Fordsburg. Pageview — the area everyone knew as Fietas — had been a working shopping street on 14th Street for generations, until the apartheid government's Group Areas Act forced its traders out. They were relocated to the newly built Oriental Plaza.

The centre opened in the mid-1970s, about a kilometre west of the inner city. The first decade was hard. Customers who had walked to 14th Street now had to be persuaded to drive somewhere unfamiliar, and a significant share of the original businesses did not survive it — they closed, merged, or sold up and left.

Owned by the people behind the counters

What kept it alive is the thing that still makes it unusual: the shops are largely owned by the traders themselves rather than leased from a landlord chasing a national tenant mix. Decisions about the centre are made by people whose own livelihood is inside it.

That ownership is why you can still buy a single button here, and why the shop three doors down sells the same thing at a different price.

Fifty years on

Today the complex runs to over 300 independently owned stores across 17 hectares: a north and a south section of open-air shopfronts, linked by a three-storey circular building in the middle. Customers come from across Gauteng and, increasingly, from elsewhere on the continent — buyers who fill a suitcase with fabric and trim and fly it home.

The trades have shifted at the edges. Cellular kiosks appeared, some of the old general dealers went. Fabric, tailoring, bridal and footwear did not move.

Giving back

Charitable giving here is decentralised and largely unannounced — individual owners contribute in their own capacity rather than through a central fund. Blanket and clothing distribution ahead of winter is an annual fixture.