As the country observes Human Rights Month, a historic moment was met during a sod-turning ceremony when 93-year-old Kathleen Basson, 81-year-old William Francis, and 84-year-old Martha Thomas, could on Tuesday touch the soil they once played and lived on, as they, together with 86 families, prepare to return to their ancestral home - Bishopscourt.
Basson, the oldest living claimant, set foot back on the grounds of Protea Village after more than seven decades after her family was forcefully removed during the Group Areas Act.
Three stone cottages known as the Kirstenbosch Stone Cottages including the Good Shepherd church, are all that remains of the village that was shared with the families.
It was a place where many learnt to swim, ride a bike, had their hearts broken for the first time and helped their parents and grandparents plough the land as it stands today as Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
“The removal happened just before I got married and I had just turned 21, I moved to Claremont,” said Basson.
“Life was never the same for me, we were free and amongst our families, now I found myself around people that I did not know.
“We always longed to come back, for the life that we had and for the people that were here.
“It is a great opportunity at this age to come back here today.
“Although all of my friends who were in my age group have died already.
“My family will be coming here and they are staying here and my wish is that they enjoy the privileges and the happiness that I had here as a child.
“I always told myself it was like living on a farm, where everyone knew one another."
For Francis, who attended the ceremony with his wife, Joy Francis, it was an emotional and nostalgic moment.
“I was 9-years-old when we had to move and can I tell you something, this is where I learnt to ride a bike, where I learnt to swim.
“My father, with the others, worked at the botanical gardens and they used to make us dams to swim in.
“Now I cannot wait to come back home. We had to move to the Lotus River.”
For Christopher McLean, 57, he stood on the porch of the cottage where his uncle once lived.
Barry Ellman, Protea Village Development Company (PVDC), said the moment marked a template for future restoration projects and remembered those who were no longer alive who spearheaded it.
“The value of land restoration projects give hope to others, yet to be achieved, provides practical explanations of how it can be achieved,” he said.
The ceremony commemorated the construction for the engineering services (electrical, water and road infrastructure) for the long-awaited homes of the returning families, a moment that has been decades in the making.
The community were the first to settle in the area in 1834, living on around 28 hectares of land, which also housed a church, playing fields, a shop and a spring that supplied drinking water.
After residing there for generations, the community was forcibly displaced between 1959 and 1970 under the Group Areas Act.
Following their successful land claim in 1995, the 86 families opted for the restoration of their rights to the land and in 2006, the National Department of Public Works and the City of Cape Town awarded erven 212 and 242 in Bishopscourt, totaling around 12 hectares, to the community.
After nine years of consultations between the community, government departments and private sector, a cross-subsidisation model was developed, which will see homes for the families funded by the sale of open-market plots on one side of Kirstenbosch Drive, in the Bishopscourt Estate development.
Four hectares, one third of the returned land, as a publicly accessible greenbelt will run along the Liesbeek River, for the enjoyment of surrounding residents and the broader public.
The project was plagued with various delays including two court challenges and multiple appeals, despite the claim being logged nearly 30 years ago.
The transfer of the awarded land to the Protea Village Communal Property Association (CPA) took place on June 15, 2021, including the grant funding approved by the Department Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development in 2021.
The town planning’s approval was done in 2022 and City approval for Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) funding was granted in June 2024.
This enabled construction of the engineering services for the Bishopscourt development to start in October 2024, with sales of the first phase of open-market plots launching the same month.
In just a few weeks all 33 plots that went on the market were under offer.
This progress included the support of the City, the National Departments of Public Works, the Regional Land Claims Commission, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (“SANBI”) and the National Department of Land Reform and Rural Development.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who attended the ceremony, said: “This is certainly one of the most extraordinary land restitution projects in the country. The City of Cape Town is proud to be helping in seeing it come to fruition. This includes our assistance with the drafting of the project’s business plan as well as the approval of over R40 million in funding for the construction of the infrastructure to support this development”.
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, said he hoped the project would inspire others.
Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Mzwanele Nyhontso, while participating in the sod-turning ceremony, said the moment was significant during Human Right Month.
“Our humanity is related to our connectedness, with other human beings, with our environment and with our history. As a tightly knit community you remained connected with each other, nurturing the bonds of neighbourliness that you built over generations. I must applaud you for converting this spirit of good neighbourliness into a well-functioning Communal Property Association or CPA.”
Cape Argus