DISTRICT 6 – PHASE 3 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE 10 December 2017 Update The first duty of the ANC led government was to fully develop District 6 in the 23 years it has been in power, not to build a CAPE Peninsula University of Technology’s (CPUT) campus and residences on the hallowed grounds of District Six. The decision to build CAPE Peninsula University of Technology’s (CPUT) without the consent or support of the D6 claimants on the hallowed grounds of District Six was a big blunder. The additional building of CPUT student residences on more District Six land, again without any consent or support of D6 claimants, is adding insult to injury. If the national ANC-led government can find these millions of taxpayers’ money to build a multi-million CPUT campus with residences, then surely the same money could have been used to house the over 1,200 D6 outstanding claimants. It is obvious to all of us as claimants that the ANC-led government has given up on the claims of D6 claimants. Just before national elections, it usually happens that the President of the ANC or some national Minister of either Land Affairs or Housing would rock up at a staged ribbon-cutting event in D6 to hand over another few houses to a few ever so grateful dispossessed D6 claimants. At these ribbon-cutting events usually, a string of empty promises are made to subtly entice D6 claimants to vote ANC at the next national election in order to ‘speed up’ the restitution process for D6 claimants. The more senior members of the ANC should know the history of District Six resistance against the apartheid regime and that we, who now live in the many townships on the Cape Flats, do not forget the contribution of our own activist leaders like Dr. Abduraghman, Sissy Gool, Benny Keyes and many others. Most of the students attending CPUT in Cape Town, has no idea that they are walking on hallowed ground and they have no idea of the suffering of our ancestors who were dispossessed. A superficial study of District Six would teach that: “The area was named in 1867 as the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town. The area began to grow after the freeing of the slaves in 1833. In 1901 large slum areas were burnt and razed after an outbreak of bubonic plague. New buildings soon arose from the ashes and flourished. The District Six neighbourhood is bounded by Sir Lowry Road on the north, Buitenkant Street to the west, De Waal Drive on the south and Mountain Road to the east. By the turn of the century, it was already a lively community made up of former slaves, artisans, merchants and other immigrants, as well as many Malay people brought to South Africa by the Dutch East India Company during its administration of the Cape Colony. It was home to almost a tenth of the city of Cape Town's population, which numbered over 1,700–1,900 families. After World War II, during the earlier part of the apartheid era, District Six was relatively cosmopolitan. Situated within sight of the docks, it was made up largely of coloured residents which included a substantial number of coloured Muslims, called Cape Malays. There were also a number of black Xhosa residents and a smaller numbers of Afrikaners, English-speaking whites, and Indians. Government officials gave four primary reasons for the removals. In accordance with apartheid philosophy, it stated that interracial interaction bred conflict, necessitating the separation of the races. They deemed District Six a slum, fit only for clearance, not rehabilitation. They also portrayed the area as crime-ridden and dangerous; they claimed that the district was a vice den, full of immoral activities like gambling, drinking, and prostitution. Though these were the official reasons, most residents believed that the government sought the land because of its proximity to the city centre, Table Mountain, and the harbour. On 2 October 1964 a departmental committee set up by the Minister of Community Development met to investigate the possible replanning and development of District Six and adjoining parts of Woodstock and Salt River. On June 1965, the Minister announced a 10-year scheme for the re-planning and development of District Six under CORDA-the Committee for the Rehabilitation of Depressed Areas. On 12 June 1965, all property transactions in District Six were frozen. A 10-year ban was imposed on the erection or alteration of any building. On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act, with removals starting in 1968. About 30 000 people living in the specific group area were affected. In 1966 the City Engineer, Dr S.S. Morris, put the total population of the affected area at 33,446, of which the majority (94%), that is 31, 248 of them were coloured. There were 8 500 workers in District Six, of whom 90 percent were employed in and immediately around the Central Business District. At the time of the proclamation, there were 3 695 properties, 2 076 (56 percent) owned by whites, 948 (26 percent) owned by coloured people and 671 (18 percent) by Indians. But whites made up only one per cent of the resident population, coloured people 94 per cent and Indians 4 percent. The government's plan for District Six, finally unveiled in 1971, was considered excessive even for that time of economic boom. On 24 May 1975, a part of District Six (including Zonnebloem College, Walmer Estate and Trafalgar Park) was declared coloured by the the Minister of Planning. Most of the approximately 20,000 coloured people removed from their homes were moved to townships on the wastes of the Cape Flats. By 1982, more than 60,000 people had been relocated to the sandy, bleak Cape Flats township complex some 25 kilometres away. The old houses were bulldozed. The only buildings left standing were places of worship. International and local pressure made redevelopment difficult for the government, however. The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) was built on a portion of District Six which the government renamed Zonnebloem. Apart from this and some police housing units, the area was left undeveloped. Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, the South African government has recognised the older claims of former residents to the area, and pledged to support rebuilding.” SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_Six All the signs show that this ANC-led government has no intention of returning the 60,000 former residents of District Six, of which 94% was coloured, back to the centre of Cape Town. As a District Six claimant (G75) I would view this as a form of punishment to mainly coloured voters who turned their backs on the ANC and who voted mainly for the Democratic Alliance. The ANC would rather prefer to give grand, multi-million rand projects to mainly black-owned construction companies such as NMC Construction, the Southern Palace Group, and Fikile Construction owned the Ndlovu family. It is alleged that such deals usually go hand in hand with large-scale bribery and corruption. For more updated information, please register with the FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ctdistrict6/ Bishop Louis Michael Green Initiator of the District Six Phase 3 Transparent Campaign Kraaifontein Western Cape South Africa