Although Indian traders were operating in Bethal as early as 1885, it is no longer their descendants who are trading here today. Members of the present Indian Community of Bethal are mainly the descendants of families who settled here shortly after the turn of the century. Most of the Indian businesses are family concerns, handed down from generation to generation and therefore this short historical survey is written mainly on a family basis. Bombay House more or less 1930 The Chainee family Chainee Veerasamy was born in India in 1877 and arrived in South Africa in 1899. He served the compulsory period on the sugar plantations, and then settled in Brakpan, and in 1913 he and his family moved to Bethal. Here he established a laundry business which still exists. Mr Chainee became the first Indian to own property in Bethal, before 1920. In these early years, Indian children had to attend the Blacks school. Because of problems this situation posed, Mr Chainee offered a room on his premises to serve as the first Indian school in Bethal. 116
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