District Six

My Grandmother lived in District Six. She remembers the day when she was forcibly removed from her home; and, she would later recall these memories in an interview I conducted with her. District Six was home to my Grandmother and many other colored, Cape Malay and Muslim citizens. Its official name was the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town. After World War II, District Six became fairly cosmopolitan because of its short distance from the harbor and the CBD. This was one of the reasons that the Apartheid government, in 1966, removed my grandmother and all who lived in the area. To get public backing, the government portrayed the area as a hotbed of immoral activity and crime, and so it was deemed not fit for rehabilitation but rather forced removals. It was then made a whites only area where they bulldozed all of the houses belonging to the previous residents.

The worst part is that to this day there has been no development on the site of District Six. During the 1994 election there were posters saying that the ANC would give the property back to the original owners, but so far only 24 houses have been built. Nineteen years is a long time to wait for 24 houses. District Six is still something that should be remembered- and, the District Six Museum, the many art projects, and the vast empty space in the middle of the Cape Town CBD reminds us of this tragic story.