Cape Town Tour 2009 – District Six
Paul Dorca (IGCSE)
Between the 18 and 25 February, there was a tour organized by the school in which people went and explored the city of Cape Town. Some people including me were left behind and we were all divide into four groups which had to research different topics.
My group consisting of me, Nadya and Odudu were given the task to research each of the following topics: “Two Oceans Aquarium”, “District Six” and “Garden Route”. I initially chose “District Six” which I researched and found lots of information about but I did ended up presenting the “Garden Route”.
After a day of research, I discovered that District Six was in
fact a former inner-city in Cape Town, South Africa. District Six is
best known for the way in which the apartheid regime forcefully
removed approximately 60,000 people from their homes during the
1970’s because of their skin colour.
In 1867, District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape
Town. It was the home of artisans, freed slaves, merchants and other
immigrants. District Six was composed of nearly a tenth of the Cape
Town population.
After World War 2, which was actually the beginning of the apartheid regime, District Six was somehow cosmopolitan. Close to the docks, there were coloured houses and many coloured Muslims, but only a few black, white or Indians.
On the 11th of February 2009, the South African Government stated that District Six was only a whites-only area, with removals of other coloured inhabitants in 1868. The 60,000 people who were removed from their home had been moved to the Cape Flats Township just 25 kilometers away from District Six. Old residential houses were destroyed by bulldozer and the only things that remained were places of worship like churches.
The Cape Technikon was built on a portion of District six which the Government named Zonnebloem. Today, the Cape Technikon is knowned as the “Cape Peninsula University of Technology”. With the exception of this university and a few police departments, the area was left barren and undeveloped.
After many years, or more respectively, in 2003, work had started on the building of 24 houses for people older than 80 years. On the 13th of February 2004, the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela personally gave the keys to the first two residents who entered this district after they were removed: “Ebrahim Murat” who was 83 years old and “Dan Ndazabela” who was 82 years old.
The South African government gave seven main reasons for the closure of District Six:
- The fact that people could not interact with each other.
- District Six did not produce money
- Crime was present.
- Gambling.
- Drinking excessively.
- Prostitution.
- Immoral Activities.
I believe that what happened to these 60,000 people was not fair as the colour of the skin is not an important factor.
Other Extra-Curricular Activities
- Extra-Murals
- Tour & Camp Photograph Galleries
- Drums & Dreams - 2008 School Concert
