Was Distrik Ses 'n slum? Oordeel self

  • 13

Ek het die onderstaande stuk gekry op 'n webwerf (www.capetown)
 nadat ek eers die Cape Times ge-google het. Dit verskaf interessante inligting oor Distrik Ses, en na my mening blyk dit daaruit duidelik dat dit 'n slumgebied was, naby aan die hartjie van die stad.

"In the early British era, especially after the release of slaves in 1838, large numbers of 'free blacks' required housing in Cape Town. They had only limited incomes and former slave owners took advantage of the situation to develop slum areas where they rented rooms to artisans and labourers. 

In the absence of building restrictions (introduced 1861) buildings without water or sewerage jumbled together between narrow alleyways. Areas of lower Cape Town and District 6 developed in this way, with certain 'slum lords', such as J Wicht, owning hundreds of such cramped dwellings, renting out rooms to the families of free blacks.

Development

Although conditions remained very poor, and over-crowding became worse, District 6, with its central location above the city, became a multi-racial and vibrant community and a cultural centre for the working class, with strong links to the Carnival.

Children growing up in District Six were expected to contribute to the family income from a young age, through washing, running errands, sewing, charring and cooking, as well as helping out with family domestic chores. 

Most houses were small, some consisting of only one room housing as many as 16 people. The toilet was in the back yard and washing comprised turns in the bath tub in the kitchen.

District Six is remembered fondly as a place of hardship, but a tolerant and mutually supportive community that enjoyed lively entertainment. People recall the lawlessness of District Six, but even the gangsters are remembered as basically harmless. The core of the 'skolly' gangs comprised street children, most of whom earned a living selling newspapers. 

In the 1930s the city engineer, W.S.Lunn imagined a dramatic reconstruction that would completely transform District Six and by the beginning of the Second World War, a total of 1127 homes had been built. The problem was that many of District Six's residents could not afford the rents being charged for the new housing. 

During the 1950s the Cape Times ran a series of articles aimed at 'demythologising' District Six's reputation as a dirty, infested place full of gangs and brothels, and in the process created myths of its own that emphasized the lively, convivial and harmless nature of the area. These portrayals were used to argue the case for saving District Six in the 1950s and '60s when powerful forces were pressing for its destruction on the basis that it was crime-ridden, unsightly and full of vice.

Destruction

Plans for the re-development of the Cape Town foreshore in the 1930s included the idea of destroying District Six. 'Control' had become a feature of urban planning and shows clearly how the spatial concepts prevalent in town planning at the time fitted neatly with the political ideology. 

When the first municipality redevelopment plan was published in 1940, residents of District Six became aware of these schemes. The plan was proposed as urban improvement, but Cissie Gool claimed that this government scheme was the introduction of racial segregation by another means 

In 1966 the National Party declared District 6 to be a 'White Group Area' so enabling them to destroy all buildings, except religious ones, on the grounds of 'slum clearance'. Politicians of the ruling party maintained that the area was squalid and 'dangerous' environment and ridiculed Coloured leaders who described the destruction as a 'tragedy'. 

Group Areas legislation led to the forced removal of about 150,000 people from unplanned residential areas in the town centre, including District 6, to the Cape Flats. Most of these were coloureds and Africans who were moved to new municipal townships built near industrial estates. The humiliation of removals had profound social effects (more..)

Approximately 60,000 people were removed from District Six itself, at a cost of more than 30 million rand. Two thirds of the residents were moved to the Cape Flats, however housing provision was insufficient and there were 24,000 people on the municipal waiting list by the early 1970s. The psychological and emotional wrench experienced by the residents of District Six is well expressed in poetry and prose. "

Varkspek

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Kommentaar

  • Wat ek weet is dat daar gesê is polisiemanne het hulle nie alleen daar begewe nie. Hulle het slegs twee-twee daar ingegaan want dit was gevaarlik. Dit was voor die verskuiwings. Dat Distrik Ses ook 'n besondere kultuur verteenwoordig het kan nie ontken word nie.

  • Johannes Comestor

    Dat Distrik Ses 'n krotbuurt en misdaadnes was, is nie te betwyfel nie. 'n Ander rede waarom dit opgeruim is, is omdat snelweë daar op aanbeveling van 'n Fransman, E Beaudouin, gebou moes word. Die verskuiwing van daardie mense kan nie primêr of uitsluitlik aan apartheid toegeskryf word nie. Diegene wat dit doen, kan gerus verduidelik waarom die inwoners van die Bo-Kaap, die Maleierbuurt, wat ook aan die middestad grens, nie verskuif is nie. Die redes is dat die Bo-Kaap nie 'n krotbuurt of misdaadnes was nie en ook nie in die pad van snelweë is nie. Hierdie feite word deur Pippa Green, wat hoogs simpatiek teenoor die ANC gesind is, in haar boek oor Trevor Manuel verstrek. Die besonderhede kan op SêNet (12.05.2011) gelees word.

     

    Ook dat behoorlik en betyds kennis aan die inwoners gegee is dat hulle verskuif gaan word. Die storie dat stootskrapers sonder waarskuwing opgedaag en huise begin platstoot het en dat vroue en kindertjies inderhaas moes vlug, is 'n ANC-strontstorie. Die destydse inwoners was meesal huurders en nie huiseienaars nie. Hulle is nie almal op die Kaapse Vlakte, oftewel Mitchell's Plain, "neergesmyt" soos ANC-propagandiste beweer nie. Hulle is daar en ook nader aan Kaapstad, bv Walmer Estate, in beter huise hervestig. Juis daarom was daar geen groot teenstand teen hierdie verskuiwing nie. In die propaganda word daar egter 'n romantiese en idilliese prentjie van Distrik Ses geskilder. Hierdie valse beeld word deur die Distrik Ses Museum uitgedra, terwyl 'n museum veronderstel is om op 'n ewewigtige manier met feite om te gaan.

     

    Deesdae word van die oudinwoners in Distrik Ses hervestig. Eertydse huurders word eensklaps ten koste van die belastingbetalers die eienaars van duur huisvesting. Hulle kry die grond gratis. Dienste word gratis aangelê. Die huise kos R800 000 elk, maar hierdie bevoordeeldes moet net R200 000 tot R250 000 per woning betaal en dat kla hulle daaroor. Die ANC en die museum bly hamer op die sogenaamde groot onreg wat die inwoners van Distrik Ses aangedoen is, maar swyg oor die oorkompensasie wat sedertdien plaasgevind het.

     

    Die Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland is die sentrum van die geweeklaag oor beweerde onregte wat teen bruines gepleeg is, veral slawerny en Distrik Ses. Maar aan die UWK word jaarliks 'n huldigingslesing vir Julius Nyerere aangebied wat as diktator tussen 1973 en 1977 11 miljoen mense in Tanzanië verskuif het (nie 60 000 nie, soos in die geval van Distrik Ses beweer word). Oor hierdie Tanzaniërs kan wél gesê word dat hulle op ander grond sonder enige huisvesting neergesmyt is. Volgens Martin Meredith was dit "the largest mass movement in Africa's history." Maar dan is daar kuberkabouters wat eerder anti-blanke ANC-propaganda glo.

     

    Johannes Comestor

  • Varkspek en Johannes

    Varkspek.  Toe ek jou berig gelees het, het ek gedink, ja, weer 'n poging tot regverdiging van die onregverdigbaar, maar nadat ek Johannes se feite weergawe gelees het, het dit beslis 'n ander perspektief weergee.

  • Hello, 

     
    In "The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape onder die redakteurskap van Wilmot Godfrey James, van die DA", word die volgende gevind: 
     
    Vanuit die inleiding: 
     
    "As John Western and others have documented group areas administration in the Western Cape was a vicious business, a powerful state acting against powerless people, with socially violent consequences. The massive growth of the cape Flats and the emptiness of District Six are witness to an act of social and economic disruption whose consequences are still with us today. The roots of radicalism among coloured people can be in part located in the truama group areas inflicted on their parents". 
     
    Die realiteit is dat stedelike beplanning van politieke en ekonomiese oorwegings en is die grondslag van hierdie ekonomiese en politieke beginsels net effektief wanneer dit saam loop met sosiale oorwegings. 
     
    Die belangrikste oorweging van die tyd dan, was om in die geheel, swart en kleurling verstedeliking as 'n bedreiging te sien. Die stede is dus gesien as wit gebied en het daarom dan die rigting gebied vir die politieke en ekonomiese rigting wat die regerding van die dag gevolg het en die oplossing wat die NP aan sy kiesers belowe het. Hoofstuk 14 en 15: Maar eers moet daar terug gegaan word na 1935: 
     
    "In 1935 the South African Railways announced a plan to construct Duncan Dock, a project that would reclaim from the sea 480 acres adjacent to the inner city. The City Council, from its side engaged the services of no less the chief architect to the French goverment, E Beaudouin. 
     
    Beaudouin's report, which was never made public, included several darker considerations not mentioned in the Railways propasals presented".
     
    Beaudouin se plan en voorstelle:
     
    "The scheme will affect the following sites. The spaces involved in the following proposed Slum Clearance Projects:
     
    a) District Six
     
    b) Malay Quarters
     
    c) Docks area
     
    The replanning of District Six will present an oppurtune occasion for the extension of a freeway towards the Cape Flats which in no way interferes with the activity of Sir Lowry Road. On the west it will be possible, at the right time, to undertake the planning of the slums of the Malay Quarters and the Docks. Wat Comestor nalaat om uit te spel is dat die verslag van Beaudouin net 'n voorstel was en nie implementeer was nie. 
     
    Daar moet dus aanbeweeg word word van 1935 tot 1951 en die onwikkeling wat daarvan gevolg het. 
     
    In 1951 verloor kleurlinge hulle stemreg en in 1961 verloor die kleurlinge hulle verteenwoordiging in Provinsiale lidmaatskap, en alhoewel die stemreg van kleurlinge in die munisipale verteenwoordiging gehou het tot 1971 word dit ook weggeneem met Ordinansie 14. 
     
    Hierdie bevestig dus 'n vasbeslote en stelselmatige ontneming van regte. 
     
    Vreemd dat Comestor in sy "ewewigtige" vertelling hierdie konteks uitlaat, stil is oor die tydsduur, die korrekte datum van Beaudouin se plan en voorstelle, en dan die uiteindelike verskuiwing, tussen 20 en 30 jaar later, alles, wat die verkeerde indruk skep. 
     
    Dit was die wit handelaars wat in 1961 die moontlikheid dat Distrik Ses tot 'n kleurling gebied verklaar word teenstaan, aangesien dit sou beteken dat hierdie wit handelaars dan nie sou kan handel dryf in die gebied nie. 
     
    In 1962 versoek hierdie handelaars die Groepsgebiede Raad om Hanover straat as 'n "nie-rassige eiland" te verklaar. 
     
    Die argument was dat die handelaars het werk verskaf aan 2000 mense, dat hulle eiendom R2000 000 werd was en 'n omset van R4,500 000 lewer. 
     
    Groot was die wit handelaars se verligting, toe dit duidelik word aan die klassifiserings in Pageview, Johannesburg & Isipingo Beach, Natal dat groepsgebiede verklaar was volgens eienaarskap en nie wie daar gewoon het nie, en soos alreeds gesien, en daar word baie daarvan gemaak, was die inwoners van Distrik Ses, grootliks huurders. 
     
    Die veronderstelling dan dat huurders minder regte het, die implisiete bedoeling van Comestor. 
     
    In 1965 word CORDA deur die staat gestig, "Committee for the Rehabilation of Depressed Areas". 
     
    Hierdie is nou Varkspek en Comestor se slums, en die verskoning wat die twee here bied, en moet ek nie van die snelweg wat net 'n idee was, vergeet nie. 
     
    Die voorsitter van CORDA het planne gehad vir 'n "high-class development", wat 'n gebied sou skep vir 'middle class people such as office workers and shop assistants". Almal was vir dit. Wie is ooit teen vooruitgang. 
     
    Die voorsitter van CORDA belowe dat net die "slum areas" in die distrik vernietig sou word. 
     
    Die belofte was, "Good buildings will remain and the whole area will not be razed". Daardie belofte was nie gehou nie en teen 1965 was meer as 300 000 kleurlinge verskuif na die "Cape Flats". 
     
    Hierdie het die kleurlinge wat vir munisipale verteenwoording kon step, drasties verminder en daarmee die bedreiging wat daar vir die wittes was drasties verminder en hiermee dan 'n duidelike vertelling van die "social enginering" wat 300 000 mense brutaal verksuif het, en sit Suid-Afrika nou nog met die gevolge daarvan. 
     
    Met die klassifisering van Distrik Ses as 'n wit gebied in 1966 kon die vernietiging van Distrik Ses voltooi word. 
     
    Hierdie is deur die gemeenskap beskryf as 'n tragedie. 
     
    Sensitiewe siel wat Comestor is sien Comestor dit soos volg:
     
    "Hulle is nie almal op die Kaapse Vlakte, oftewel Mitchell's Plain, "neergesmyt" soos ANC-propagandiste beweer nie. Hulle is daar en ook nader aan Kaapstad, bv Walmer Estate, in beter huise hervestig. Juis daarom was daar geen groot teenstand teen hierdie verskuiwing nie. In die propaganda word daar egter 'n romantiese en idilliese prentjie van Distrik Ses geskilder. Hierdie valse beeld word deur die Distrik Ses Museum uitgedra, terwyl 'n museum veronderstel is om op 'n ewewigtige manier met feite om te gaan".
     
    Kaapstad se weberf wat nie Comestor se ewewigtigheid kan ewenaar nie beskryf dit soos volg: 
     
    Approximately 60,000 people were removed from District Six itself, at a cost of more than 30 million rand. Two thirds of the residents were moved to the Cape Flats, however housing provision was insufficient and there were 24,000 people on the municipal waiting list by the early 1970s. The psychological and emotional wrench experienced by the residents of District Six is well expressed in poetry and prose. 
     
    South African History Archive wat nie Comestor se ewewigtigheid kan ewenaar nie beskryf die gebeure soos volg: 
     
    District Six: recalling the forced removals
    On February 11, 1966, the apartheid government declared Cape Town's District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act of 1950. From 1968, over 60 000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed to the Cape Flats, over twenty five kilometers away. Except for the local houses of worship, the buildings were systematically bulldozed throughout the 1970s, and by 1982, almost all evidence of the district had been destroyed. Originally named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867, the neighbourhood was home to almost ten per cent of the city's population. Its unique culture was a composite of the dynamic and diverse population of Malay, Eastern European, Indian and African immigrants, ex-slaves, artists, musicians and activists. District Six was famed for its proximity to the City Centre, as well as its view of the picturesque Table Mountain and harbour. District Six had experienced a long history of removals, with black residents forcibly removed as early as 1901. This was intensified in the early 1960s, when residents were perfunctorily given notice and informed of their new homes. By the mid 1960s the apartheid government regarded the district as both physically and morally tainted by miscegenation, wholly unfit for rehabilitation. Over the next two decades, they systematically razed it to the ground.
     
    Daar is dus 'n redelike konsensus wat oor gebeur het, maar nog steeds sal die Comestore, die Varkspekke die verlede probeer herskryf. FC Boot behoort nou enige oomblik te roer, met Jacques kort op sy hakke. 
     
    Baie dankie
     
    Wouter
     
    NS, ek het gesoek vir al wat dit werd is vir 'n bespreking van Beaudouin in Pippa Green se boek. Kon dit nie kry nie, wonder wat die fout is.
  • Hello,

     
    Dan na aanleiding van William Beinart, (Rhodes Professor of Race Relations at the University of Oxford), se Twentieth-Century South Africa, uitgegee1994 en herdruk in 2001. 
     
    Die volgende oor Distrik Ses. 
     
    "In the 1940s, Cape Town’s planners recommended the wholesale demolition of the centrally located District Six, by then a largely coloured area, to be replaced byroads, commercial zones, and new housing.These initiatives prefigured the policies pushed through under the NP’s Group Areas Act (1950) and Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act (1951), which allowed racial zones to be defined and people to be moved between them. Moving people about became a major preoccupation of apartheid planners". District Six lost around 60,000 people and many Victorian buildings were destroyed. By the 1970s it was a city-centre wasteland dotted with a few churchesand mosques and fringed by new highways; its reoccupation remains a politically charged issue".
     
    In Comestor se kommentaar word die stelling gemaak dat hierdie brutale verskuiwing met ope arms verwelkom was. Beinart beskryf die gevolge soos volg: 
     
    "In 1976 a government commission, cognisant of the unworkability of the segregated Coloured Council and the deep anger over Group Areas and District Six, advocated a restructuring of the parliamentary system. Verligte thinking was moving towards some kind of group representation in a central parliament. This proved to be an attractive route forward for Botha, who also wished to concentrate more power in his own hands. Reform materialized in significant constitutional change. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, was abolished and a President’s Council established in 1980. In 1983 a ‘tri-cameral parliament’ was approved in a whites’ only referendum. Two new national parliaments would be created for coloured and Indian people".
     
    Vanuit die Cambridge History of South Africa Volume II onder die redakteurskap van Robert Ross et al. (Leiden University Institute for History - Humanities)
     
    Die hoofstuk getiteld, "The Apartheid Project, 1948–1970" geskryf deur Deborah Posel. (Deborah Posel is a professor of sociology at the University of Cape Town), en bespreek Distrik Ses in die volgende terme in konteks van die groot projek van die tyd en was die redes die gewonde refrein, dit was om wet en orde te skep en vir die gesondheid van die gemeenskap:
     
    During the first phase of apartheid,population removals were enacted under the auspices of the Group Areas Act of 1950, which designated residential areas for racially homogeneous occupation and was applied in tandem with the Elimination of Squatting Act of 1951. 
     
    Black people living in urban areas designated for whites werethen forcibly removed to other parts of the city.In the 1950s, racially homogeneous residential areas – or ‘group areas’, to use the official parlance – were created, along with the gradual eradication of informal squatter settlements. In many instances, this involved forced removals of communities located in the allegedly wrong place, or with histories of racial mixing – such as the removal of Sophiatown in Johannesburg during the late 1950s and District Six in Cape Town. 
     
    Black inhabitants were sorted into racial groups and reassigned accommodation in coloured, Indian or African townships, all subject to the jurisdiction of local authorities. So the remapping and reconfiguration of black com-munities were simultaneously a reorganisation of the parameters of urban governance, steadily eliminating residential zones beyond the control of the authorities. 
     
    During apartheid’s second phase, removals were used to excise large chunks of the urban African population altogether, dumping people in areas designated as outside the boundaries of ‘white’ South Africa and subject to the authority of a self-governing homeland. This was also a way of diminishing the apartheid state’s responsibility for the welfare of those people once they had been removed to a supposedly distinct political authority. Then, any African person deemed ‘surplus’ to the (white) labour requirements of the area was deemed liable for removal to one of the Bantustans. By the end of the 1960s, around 3.5 million people had beenforcibly removed from ‘white’ areas of South Africa.
     
    Ek is al so moeg om daaroor te skryf. 
     
    Wie hierdie kuberkabouter nie sal glo nie, is vir Comestor. 
     
    Daarom, as jy enige iets wil weet, gaan lees dit self, moet nie wag dat Comestor jou daarvan vertel nie. 
     
    Jy gaan nie die hele storie kry nie. 
     
    Net soos Varkspek, die einde van die aanhaling nie snap nie. 
     
    Kan die man nie lees en verstaan nie?. 

     
    So is die regse sluipers, is hulle nie?
     
    Die media lieg, die geskiedenis boeke lieg, museums is eensydig, universiteite is blind in hulle liberalisme. maar die regse sluipers, sien die waarheid soos die res nie kan nie. 
     
    Baie dankie
     
    Wouter 
     
    (Geen korrespondensie sal oor die onderwerp gevoer word nie - daar is geen salf om meer te smeer nie - gaan maar julle gang)
  • Johannes Comestor

    Dit is nie moeilik om polities korrekte teks oor Distrik Ses op te spoor nie. Uit die datums wat Wouter noem, is dit baie duidelik dat die opruiming van Distrik Ses as krotbuurt en misdaadnes lank voor 1948 en apartheid oorweeg is. Dit het eers in 1966, 16 jaar na die uitvaardiging van die Groepsgebiedewet, werklikheid geword. Dit het egter ook om die konstruksie van snelwee gegaan. As 'n mens Pippa Green se boek oor Trevor Manuel nie gelees het nie en op die indeks staat moet maak, gebeur dit maklik dat 'n mens nie inligting hieroor kan opspoor nie. In die Afrikaanse weergawe word Beaudouin se naam op bladsy 45 genoem. Segregasie of rasseskeiding is in Suid-Afrika die tradisionele beleid. Dit is nie iets wat die slegte Afrikaners in 1948 uitgedink het nie.

     

    Maar Wouter het nog nie verduidelik waarom die Maleierbuurt, die Bo-Kaap, nie deur die rassiste opgeruim is nie. Ook het hy nog nie erken dat die verskuiwing van 'n huurder uit 'n huis nie so drasties en dwaas is soos die rasgebaseerde onteiening van 'n plaas nie. Ook het hy nog nie erken dat Nyerere se verskuiwing van 11 miljoen mense in Tanzanie erger is as die beweerde 60 000 mense wat uit Distrik Ses verskuif is nie, of die beweerde altesaam 300 000 bruines wat hy noem nie. Ook rep hy geen woord oor die oorkompensasie wat oudinwoners van Distrik Ses ten koste van die belastingbetalers ontvang nie.

     

    Die les wat Wouter en diesulkes nog moet leer, is dat die werklikheid genuanseerd is, bv nie net wit en swart nie. Die wittes is nie net sleg nie en die nie-wittes is nie deur die bank wonderlik nie. Dit is nie net wittes wat rassisties kan wees nie. Maar ek verstaan Wouter se dilemma. Gelukkig het ek nie 'n swart baas nie en voel dus nie verplig om net polities korrekte geluide te maak nie. Ek sal bly wees as Wouter sal besef dat ek nie ontken het dat stootskrapers in die opruiming gebruik is nie. Wat ek ontken het, is dat die stootskrapers een oggend uit die bloute opgeduik en sommer begin het om die krotte met vroue en kindertjies en so aan plat te stoot. Dit is 'n strontstorie omdat duidelike kennisgewings geruime tyd vooraf op die huurders en eienaars bedien is.

     

    Johannes Comestor    

  • Hello, 

     
    Hoekom is dit nie moontlik om net weg te loop nie. Die regse sluipers met hulle wanvoorstelle te laat en die se projek om 'n beter geskiedenis te probeer skryf. 
     
    Hoe het Comestor dit dan dat Wilmot James die redakteur van 'n "polities korrekte teks" is, wanneer die teks teen jou wanvoorstellings is, of die getoetste verwoording van die verlede, dan is dit nie "ewewigtig" nie, of dit slaag nie die toets van "die werklikheid (wat) genuanseerd is". 
     
    Nou die dag as Comestor, daarin slaag om werklik ewewigtig te wees, genuanseerd te wees, sal 'n dag soos min wees. 
     
    Huidiglik doen Comestor wat Plutach beskyf en voorspel het in 'n opstel getiteld, "The Malice of Herodotus": 
     
    "The style, O Alexander, of Herodotus, as being simple, free, and easily suiting itself to its subject, has deceived many; but more, a persuasion of his dispositions being equally sincere. For it is not only (as Plato says) an extreme injustice, to make a show of being just when one is not so; but it is also the highest malignity, to pretend to simplicity and mildness and be in the meantime really most malicious".
     
    Hoe Plutarch geweet het van Comestor, 2000 jaar gelede en Comestor se verskyning op Litnet in die toekoms is 'n raaisel. 
     
    Is soos Virgil wat die geboorte van Jesus voorspel het.  
     
    Maar nou na die Pippa Green en haar verhaal oor Trevor Manuel. 
     
    Daar sou gedink gewees het dat Comestor in sy redelikheid die volgende sou uitlig en geneem van die boek waaroor Comestor so "gesaghebbend" geskryf het": 
     
    Choice Not Fate  The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel (Pippa Green)
    Kindle Location. 467-69  

    ABRAHAM MANUEL BOUGHT THE house from Hilda Waynick Elkin, the daughter of a prosperous landowning Jewish family who owned many of the cottages and tenement buildings in this rapidly expanding area.

    Hierdie 'n bevestiging dat alhoewel daar huurders was in die areas, daar eienaars ook was en dat die mense 'n lewe gemaak het vir hulle in die areas. 

    ==========

    Pippa Green bevestig wat die "polities korrekte teks" van Wilmot James bevestig en elke ander geskiedenis boek waarna verwys is in hierdie siklus: 

    Kindle Location. 1137-41  

    District Six was declared a white area in 1966, 16 years after the Group Areas Act was enacted. In the next 15 years, some 60 000 people were moved out of the District, among them Abraham Manuel’s mother and her daughters’ families, and Fred Robertson and his family. 

    The destruction of the community happened almost imperceptibly, little by little. 

    First, says Robertson, ‘they brought the freeway in. 

    So in doing that they obviously got a lot of liberals on their side from Wynberg, Newlands, Rondebosch. 

    So then the houses along the highway had to go, they destroyed those.’

    Die datum waarna verwys word is 1966 en verder. 

    Comestor het die indruk geskep dat dit 'n Fransman was wat die snelweg voorgestel het, die Afrikaner is dus blaamloos en is mense nie verskuif weens die gruwels van apartheid en groepsgebiede maar vir iets so banaal soos 'n snelweg. Dit is mos veel meer "redeliker" om mense vir daardie rede te verskuif, wie wil in die weg van vooruitgang staan

    ==========

    In die verlede het ek al male sonder tal melding gemaak dat Comestor het wanvoorstelling tot 'n kuns vervolmaak. Soos sekere gelowiges wat 'n teksversie aanhaal, maar die vyf versies voor en na die aangehaalde vers nalaat. 

    Ek het hierdie keer nie gaan soek in die argiewe nie, aangesien ek nog nie getoets het of die argiewe weer werk, maar Comestor se hele wanvoorstelling berus op die volgende gedeelte en dit dan buite konteks op te blaas:

    Kindle Location. 1141-51...the main highway that carries traffic from the Cape Flats and southern suburbs to the city, had been mooted 20 years earlier in mid-1940. And in the minds of planners it was always connected with the destruction of District Six. Mr E Beaudouin, then chief architect to the French government, was engaged by the Cape Town City Council to replan the city. In mid-1940 he wrote a report (kept under wraps at the time) advocating ‘slum clearance’ of District Six, the Malay Quarter (now Bo-Kaap) and the Docks area (where several Africans lived). ‘The replanning of District Six will present an opportune occasion for [the extension of a freeway towards the Cape Flats]’. ‘It is a healthy site and commands a magnificent outlook,’ wrote the City Engineer in the same year.‘ 

    (Hierdie is gekoppel aan 'n voetnota in Pippa Green se boek). 

    Hierdie is tot die letter wat in die kommentaar verwoord is waar daar geput was uit "The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape" Die "polities korrekte teks", "The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape" & "Choice Not Fate  The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel", vertel presies dieselfde verhaal. 

    Die wanvoorstelling is nou duidelik:

    "the main highway that carries traffic from the Cape Flats and southern suburbs to the city, had been mooted 20 years earlier in mid-1940.." 

    Dit is net daardie gedeelte, "that is it", in die hele boek, en groot gewag is gemaak van Pippa Green wat die ANC gustig is en die "moed van haar oortuiging het" om die waarheid te skryf. 

    Soos male sonder tal al uitgelig, enige skrywer, kan met Comestor se towerkuns, 'n handpop van Comestor word. 

    Pippa Green gaan egter voort waar Comestor ophou en bevestig die volgende: 

    "Today it is a blot in a beautiful city and a disgrace to civilised conceptions of how human beings should live"

    THE FIRST BATCH OF PEOPLE to move out were offered houses in Vanguard Estate, east of the city on the plains of the Cape Flats. Then in Bonteheuwel, further east, a rougher suburb where gangs quickly developed and ruled the streets.

    Die lesers wat Comestor nou al goed ken kan self oordeel of Comestor in staat is om verslag te lewer en die volgende te plaas: 

    "Today it is a blot in a beautiful city and a disgrace to civilised conceptions of how human beings should live"

    Ongelukkig nie, dit sal 'n erkentenis van skuld wees en 'n erkenning van die onreg wat in die verlede gepleeg is en bevestig dat Comestor nie, ewewigtig kan wees nie, of nuanse nie en defnitief nie goeie trou nie. 

    ==========

    Sou Comestor die volgende menslike gevolge van die verskuiwings uitgelig het en daarmee met empatie en in volledigheid omgegaan het: 

    Kindle Location 1154-58

    The Manuel daughters, all now married, gathered at the house in Eckhard Street and asked the old lady what she was going to do. ‘When we got the letter (from the Group Areas board),’ recalled Mrs Amansure, ‘I was working at that time, and I came home and I said to my gran, I said well, we better move or what do we want to do? And she said to me, no, your husband asked me already, I’m going with you. That’s why she went along with us and she stayed with me… My granny wasn’t a person who would put herself out with things, she was a very gentle old lady.’

    Op die vraag oor hoekom die mense so "gedwee" was, bied Pippa Green die volgende antwoord: 

    Kindle Location. 1158-70

    It may have been something of a puzzle to the younger generation that there was not more resistance to the obliteration of District Six, especially when there had been such massive protests against residential segregation before the war.After all, the razing of District Six wiped out not only a community of some 60 000 people but an entire legacy of culture and literature. But the two decades of apartheid rule that preceded the first removals had, by then, ‘just knocked people into subservience’, guessed Pam Barron, Trevor’s sister.

    So 'n duidelike bevestiging as wat kan gekry word, dat die snelweg voorgestel deur Beaudouin en die eerste verskuiwings het 'n 20 jaar gaping en is daar nie die oorsaak en gevolg wat Comestor probeer skep het nie. 

    Die toneel wat in vele huishoudings afgespeel het, het soos volg verloop: 

    Kindle Location. 1166-70

    When they got ‘the letter’ declaring District Six a white area, they knew right away they wouldn’t win if they fought it. And anyway the houses were a bit cramped and the neighbourhood around them was disintegrating. They could get a three-bedroomed house at the edge of Heideveld, a nice house, said Mrs Amansure, although the kitchen was nothing like the Eckhard Street one. They moved sooner rather than later to avoid being packed off to a township that was even less attractive.

    Kindle Location. 1177-84

    It threw people together who were from all over and… it put gangsters in with decent people and made gangsters of everyone. It ripped out the heart of the community, and with ripping out that heart it denuded the community of all the intellectuality that resided there.’ Between 1957 and 1980, some 150 000 coloured people in the Western Cape had been moved out of their homes under the Group Areas Act.20 The old city, writes Pinnock ‘was destroyed and built to a different rhythm’. By the end of the 1960s ‘the working class in Cape Town were like a routed, scattered army dotted in confusion about the land of their birth’.21 In the mid-1960s, too, similar clouds began gathering over Philma Manuel’s family home in Stellenbosch.

    Kindle Location. 1184-91

    Leonard von Söhnen, known far and wide as the best plumber in the area, and the most honest, took note when the authorities built the coloured township of Cloetesville on a slope up the mountain. ‘He predicted that something was going to happen,’ said his daughter Dawn von Söhnen. Cloetesville was the poorer of the two coloured townships built near the town – the other was Ida’s Valley. Those who rented houses in the middle of Stellenbosch were the first to be moved. Hermann Giliomee, then a lecturer at Stellenbosch University and a supporter of the National Party, remembers questioning an official who was carting the furniture of a coloured family on to a truck. ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ asked Giliomee. ‘Ja, meneer, die mense wil trek’ (‘Yes, sir, the people want to move’), the official replied. And Giliomee felt uncomfortable but accepted it. The Von Söhnens had owned their house for three generations.

    Bogenoemde dan 'n uiteensetting van hoe 'n boek deur Comestor manipuleer kan word. Dit is elke keer ongelooflik om dit te sien, wanneer ek die moeite doen om dit te doen, maar na 'n paar keer is die geheim uit en dit glad nie meer dringend om dit te doen nie. Maar ek was weer nuuskierig genoeg. 

    Dan dit wat ek nie gedoen het nie:

     "Maar Wouter het nog nie verduidelik waarom die Maleierbuurt, die Bo-Kaap, nie deur die rassiste opgeruim is nie".

    In teenstelling met FC Boot wat sonder oordeel die internet gebruik, verkies ek werklik boeke, onder die redakteurskap van deskundiges en kon ek nie 'n goeie geskiedenis kry oor die Maleier's in die Kaap nie. 'n Onderwerp wat sekerlik meer oor gelees kan word. 

    Al wat ek kry is die volgende en is dit nie aangebied nie, aangesien ek nie bevestiging vir dit kon kry nie en dit uit Wikipedia kom:

    "Many Cape Malay people also lived in District Six before they, among many other South African people of diverse ethnicity, were forcefully removed from their homes by the apartheid government and redistributed into townships on the Cape Flats".

    http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/malay-quarter-cape-town het die volgende vertelling oor die "Malay Quarter":

    "The area, known as the Malay Quarter of Cape Town, nestles against the steep slopes of Signal Hill. It formerly covered a much larger piece of land but this has been restricted over the years by incursions from commercial development and the threat of Apartheid legislation. 

    It is one of the oldest parts of Cape Town, and is one of the few to have retained some of its historical character. It originated during the third quarter of the 18th century, when Cape Town began to expand along an east-west axis. 

    The first houses in this neighbourhood were probably built in 1790 but between 1795 and 1820 an increasing number of lower income families including many artisans began to make their homes here. The influx of Malays into this quarter probably began in the 1830s when slavery was abolished and Malay residents who had been forcibly brought to the Cape began to make their homes there, and by the middle of the 19th century 

    it was already known as the Slamse Beurt, or the Islamic Quarter. It owes much of its character to the nature of its domestic architecture, mostly single storey houses with flat roofs painted in a variety of pastel colours. A number of mosques with picturesque minarets are still in daily use. 

    The Quarter was probably a major factor why the Cape Malay community managed to retain its identity as a group. Unfortunately the quality of its environment began to deteriorate after WWI, and in 1944 it was declared a slum. 

    This led a number of prominent Cape Town citizens to form a group for the retention of the Malay Quarter, with the support of both the then Historical Monuments Commission as well as the City Council. Initially much of the suburb was purchased by the City Council, but as public opinion began to swing in its favour, so then the Government began to set aside funds for the rehabilitation of this area. It was declared a National Monument under old NMC legislation on 15 April 1966".

    So die rassiste het iets verstommend gedoen, die gebied as 'n nasionale monument verklaar en daarmee 'n groep se kultuur en identiteit beskerm in teenstelling met die vernietiging van Distrik Ses, soos gesien in Kindle Location 1177-1184. "It ripped out the heart of the community, and with ripping out that heart it denuded the community of all the intellectuality that resided there...the working class in Cape Town were like a routed, scattered army dotted in confusion about the land of their birth’

    Maar dit sou die leser nooit geweet het met die wanvoorstelling van Comestor nie en waarvoor Pippa Green kwansuis sou gestaan het nie. 

    Die volgende aspek wat ek nie gedoen het nie: 

    "Ook het hy (Wouter) nog nie erken dat die verskuiwing van 'n huurder uit 'n huis nie so drasties en dwaas is soos die rasgebaseerde onteiening van 'n plaas nie":

    Terug na 1913 en die vraagstukke in die eienaarksap van grond vandag. Wat die onderwerp betref het ek al oor geskryf, bevestig dat die wette van 1913 die swart bevolking van die tyd benadeel het, die wit bevolking bevoordeel het, 'n klas van armoede geskep het wat nog baie dekades gaan neem om te herstel. Die oorgrote meerderheid van die bevolking is ontneem van die moontlikheid om welvaart te vorm. Dit moet herstel word. Dit is die sondes van die vaders, Comestor, Jacques en ander en wat Malema bedoel, gee net terug, dit wat gesteel was, en dan is ons vriende. Ek is nie Salomo nie en het nie die antwoorde nie. 

    Nyerere: 

    Soos verduidelik aan FC Boot wanneer die verkuiwings volgens die wette van die Afrikaner bespreek word, dan is dit die onderwerp, en dan is dit wat bespreek word. Dit dien dan geen doel om te argumenteer dat Nyerere se regering het 11 000 000 mense verskuif en Verwoerd en kie, 3,500 000 mense verskuif en wie die erger is van die twee. 

    Hoe sou die trappe van vergelyking bepaal word?

    (Ek het ook die Meredith in my versameling van boeke - maar dit is vir 'n ander gesprek en wanneer Nyerere bespreek word, dan sal ek myne ook van die elektroniese boekrak afhaal en die motiverings van Nyerere bevestig en dan kan die ideologie van here Verwoerd en Nyerere vergelyk word en bespreek word).

    "Oorkompensasie wat oudinwoners van Distrik Ses ten koste van die belastingbetalers ontvang nie"

    Die argiewe van Die Beeld & Die Burger is power. Dit is nie op die vlak van die New York Times nie, wat indien die Times oor Distrik Ses sou rapporteer het, elke liewe artikel oor die onderwerp beskikbaar sou maak. 

    Wikipedia vermy ek maar was genoodsaak weens die swak argiewe in die media om die volgende daaroor in Wikipedia te lees: 

    "By 2003, work had started on the first new buildings: 24 houses that will belong to residents over 80 years old. On 11 February 2004, exactly 38 years after the area was rezoned by the government, former president Nelson Mandela handed the keys to the first returning residents, Ebrahim Murat (87) and Dan Ndzabela (82). About 1,600 families were scheduled to return over the next three years".

    Maar wat vir my wel opvallend was, was die verwysing na 'n film van 'n paar jaar terug, "District 9" en die artikel waarna Wikepedia verwys in Newsweek getiteld. "The Real District 9: Cape Town's District Six". 

    Dit kan hier gelees word. 


    Dit was 'n redelike film, sekerlik nie uitsonderlik nie, maar stof tot nadenke. Neill Blomkamp was terug in 2013 met Elysium en sekerlik die eerste "Hollywood movie", waarin Jan Pierewiet gesing is en die CCB 'n verskyning maak. 

    Die hart van die Newsweek artikel is soos volg: 

    "In 1966, South Africa's apartheid regime declared District Six a "whites only" area under the notorious Group Areas Act, a piece of legislation whose sole purpose for three decades was to divide, and then divide some more, until whites controlled every piece of valuable land, and blacks—or natives, as they were then known—were relegated to arid, poverty-stricken Bantustans, there to rot until the end of days. 

    The policy, begun on the very day it was passed, was carried out with shocking clarity of purpose and efficiency; resistance was futile.One by one, the residents of District Six were kicked out of their homes. First the poor were removed. Black Africans, who weren't allowed to own property at all, were the most disenfranchised of all. 

    Then the government went after property owners like Indians, Chinese, and Malays. In some cases the government "bought" the properties far below market value. If residents refused to leave, they were kicked out and the houses expropriated. 

    Nearly 70,000 people were summarily evicted from the only homes they had ever known. 

    Some 1,800 houses were torn apart. 

    The complete razing of the community took 15 years, a process its engineers drew out at length to further fragment already destabilized areas. "Everything came shattering away from the day we were moved to the townships," wrote Thandi Makhupula, one victim of the removals, on the wall of the District Six Museum. "Everything came to an end. Everything just vanished because of the Group Areas Act. Here we were put together with people we did not even know."

    Their future homes were crude structures in encampments like the ones of District 9, located on the barren, windswept plains of the Cape Flats—a vast stretch of lonely nothingness on the outskirts of Cape Town, hidden between city and sea but readily accessible to neither, and prone to all the social ills that come with poverty and alienation. 

    These housing developments of the Cape Flats were designed to contain violent insurrection. There was just one highway in and out so the military could quickly respond. 

    Each dormitory community had one entrance and exit, so as to further contain the inhabitants inside. Houses were small and poorly designed. 

    The sewage system could regulate the waste of no more than 300,000 people, but soon the Flats were home to almost a million. 

    Families were often split up. Long commutes to town for work weren't compensated for by increases in salaries, so poverty began to weigh heavily. 

    Mothers worked instead of caring for children. Drug use and crime begat gangs. "Everything that was community-based was destroyed," says Joe Schaffer, a youthful-looking septuagenarian who works part time at the District Six Museum in downtown Cape Town, one of eight Museums of Conscience scattered around the globe. "They split us up and spread us all over the countryside."

    En dan die terugkeer: 

    "After 15 years of political and bureaucratic wrangling, South Africa's politicians have finally begun the work of restoring District Six to the point where it can begin to live again. Thirty-six thousand people have submitted claims to houses there. (This week staff members at the District Six Museum have set up tables where people removed from their ancestral lands, some half a century ago, are able to come to demand reparation.) The government intends to begin with 4,000 houses for nearly 6,000 families. It expects about 30,000 people back within three years. "When we create Disctrict Six again, I won't allow it to be done in a selfish way," says Anwah Nagia, who is spearheading some of the development projects currently underway. "We're trying to fuse the design so that we're not going to hold the past to ransom. The city should not be alien to foreigners." Or, perhaps one day long in the future, foreign to aliens, either. 

    Aan die einde my advies aan Comestor. 

    Kyk jy agter jouself, ek sal na myself kyk en het my swart bestuurder niks hiermee te maak, of die feit dat die meerderheid van my medewerkers swart is nie. Dit het alles te doen met menslikheid, goeie trou, volledigheid van aanbieding en die nuanse na vore te laat kom, wie ook al goed of sleg mag wees. 

    Baie dankie

    Wouter

    Ns, Daar sal werklik geen korrespondensie oor die onderwerp gevoer word nie.
  • Beste Wouter
    Waarom jy my naam weereens insleep is nie duidelik nie. Aangesien jy jou nou as die deskundige op die gebied voorhou, sal jy seker nie omgee om 'n meer gedailleerde uiteensetting te gee oor die 3.5 miljoen mense wat verskuif is, soos waar hul gewoon het en waarheen hul verskuif is en of hul vergoeding ontvang het of nie.

    As jy kan aandui watter persentasie die van die swartbevolking dit was en hoeveel Blanke plase gebruik is om tuislande te konsolideer en die waarde daarvan sal dit ook help om 'n meer ewewigtige prentjie te vorm.

    So ook graag besonderhede ontvang van gevalle waar bv myne gesluit het soos in Benoni en 10 000 hawelose mense sukselvol na Daveyton aan die Oos-Rand verskuif is.

    Jy sien Wouter daar is 'n goeie rede waarom ek dit vra. Ek was tydens my loopbaan met baie mense
    deurmekaar  wat altyd die ou Regering beskuldig het dat hul miljoene mense vermoor het. Dan het ek gewoonlik voorgestel dat ons moet ry en gaan kyk waar die miljoene begrawe is.

  • Hello FC, 

     
    Sonder enige voorbehoud, verskoning aan jou, vir die gebruik van jou naam, en hoop ek dat jy my verskoning sal aanvaar. Dit was ongevraagd en het geen doel gedien nie, behalwe as  'n nodelose verwysing en daarvoor is ek opreg jammer en was  dit 'n fout en ek seker so na as moontlik aan 'n jerk gewees het as wat kon kom wat jou betref. 
     
    My opregte verskoning daarvoor en kan ek dit nie genoeg dit bevestig nie en is  dit reg dat jy my uitgewys het daarop. 
     
    Verskoning dus. 
     
    Wat die tweede aspek betref, jy is meer as welkom om die syfers en aantal mense betrokke te plaas. Ek het nie 'n onmiddellike bron wat dit betref wat ek kan opvolg nie. 
     
    Weereens, 'n opregte verskoning en is ek jammer. Dit was ongevraagd. 
     
    Jy is 'n goeie persoon en baie dankie dat jy my attent gemaak het daarop, sodat ek kon probeer om dit reg te stel. 
     
    Verskoning FC, my fout. 
     
    Baie dankie
     
    Wouter
  • Beste Wouter

    'n Debat is nooit 'n debat as 'n mens nie alle kante van 'n saak debatteer nie. 'n Mens moet dus nie skroom om bewese feite wat ter ondersteuning of versagting van 'n saak op die tafel te plaas nie.

    Meeste argumente wat mense aanvoer as hul wil bewys hoe vrot en onmenslik Apartheid nou eintlik was, is op emosies en nie feite gegrond. Praat ek hiermee dat 'Apartheid - selfstandige onwikkeling'  goed, geensins nie, dit sal altyd bekend wees as 'social engineering' wat klaaglik om 'n hoeveelheid redes misluk het en mense se lewens aan beide kante van die kleurlyn drasties beïnvloed het.

  • Hello FC, 

     
    Die konflik tussen rede en emosie is 'n debat wat vurig tussen en my medewerkers gewoed het, waar ek die kant gehuldig het wat aangevoer het dat die emosies is "altyd" die onderbou van rede, hoe "redelik" die persoon ook al mag dink sy argumente is en het ek geput uit Gross, Nussbaum en Kahneman wat die werking daarvan beskryf het. (Kahneman word juis bespreek elders op Litnet het ek gesien). 
     
    Alle kante van 'n saak moet ondersoek word, hoe groot 'n werk dit ook al mag wees, Kahneman se "tipe 2 denke", maar faal die mens meermale daarin as wat die mens slaag om daardie harde werk te doen. 
     
    Daarom dan dat ek  werklik belang stel in die wittes wat deur apartheid benadeel was, ek wens daar was iets wat dit in meer detail bespreek. 
     
    Van die wittes se verskuiwing, al word dit aanvaar dat dit nie op die skaal van 3.5 miljoen was nie en glad nie verskoning bied vir die verskuiwing van 3,5 miljoen mense nie.  
     
    Baie dankie
     
    Wouter
  • Baie dankie ... dit verduidelik baie. Hierdie inligting is nooit deurgegee aan my nie ... dit was 'n gevaarlike pandemie-gebied.

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