James Mpanza House, Historical residence in Orlando East, Soweto, South Africa

The James Mpanza House is a single-storey brick building on Hlatywayo Street in Orlando, Soweto. James Mpanza moved into the house in the 1930s with his wife Julia Mngomezulu, whom he married in 1939, and their six children. The house carries a blue plaque marking his contribution to South African history.

The house was built in the 1930s as a residence in a growing Johannesburg township. In the 1940s it became the center of a mass movement that brought thousands of people together to establish a new settlement, fundamentally changing the city's housing landscape.

The house was a gathering place where Mpanza held community meetings and addressed local matters using traditional dispute-resolution practices still recognized in Soweto today. These gatherings shaped how neighborhoods organized themselves and made collective decisions.

The house is located in Orlando East in Soweto and is marked by a blue commemorative plaque on its exterior that makes it easy to spot. The location is accessible on foot once you are in the neighborhood and looking for the marker.

Mpanza ran an informal court at the house where parents brought wayward children; he decided on corporal punishment for the guilty and referred serious cases to the police. Soweto's later makgotla vigilante courts are thought to derive from these "parents courts".