Protea Village land claimants ready to return after arduous journey

“I hope I will (live to) see it,” said one of the oldest land claimants of the Protea Village community in Bishops Court, as the development project is on track to break ground before the end of this year.

After nearly three decades since their successful 1995 restitution claim, the development will see the residents return to the homes they once occupied.

The Protea Village community were indigenous to the land in Bishops Court, residing there for generations until they were forcibly removed between 1959 and 1970.

After being forcefully displaced, families were scattered across the Cape Flats, from Steenberg to Parkwood and Manenberg, among others.

Around 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 Bishops Court to the community.

The battle for restitution, however, has been lengthy with many claimants having already died before being able to return to the area. The project had also been halted by several delays including a court application lodged by the Friends of the Liesbeek in May 2022.

On January 30, 2024, a settlement agreement was signed between the parties. The Friends of the Liesbeek agreed to withdraw their opposition to the project in return for an expansion of the size of the public open space along the Liesbeek River’s green belt, which will form part of the completed development.

With the terms of the settlement being implemented, and all planning approvals in place, the project team said they had turned their focus on the necessary processes required to begin construction on the site before the end of the year.

Chairperson of the Protea Village Communal Property Association, Barry Ellman, said Protea Village represented a “first-of-its-kind” land restitution project in South Africa, as a cross-subsidisation business plan was being used, where the community is selling private residential stands on one side of Kirstenbosch Drive to fund “high-quality” homes for returning residents on the other side.

One of the beneficiaries, 72-year-old Huibrecht Lewin, said: “I was nine-years-old when we moved there. My aunties and uncles and my mother all stayed there. We played in the river, the water that comes from Kirstenbosch mountain. It was fantastic, I really enjoyed my days there and I went to school there. I still go there.

When it’s holiday end of the year I go to church there.”

Describing the traumatic impact of the forced removal on her family, she said: “My aunt was a school teacher in Wynberg and she was in her late 70s when we moved. We moved in the week and the Sunday she asked my uncle to take her up to Kirstenbosch and he took her up. She came back and she went to the bathroom and she shouted to him, he must come to her and she just collapsed and died.

I think she was very heartsore. The family took the move very hard.”

While the process to restitution had been a long one, she was hopeful she’d see her family’s return to the area.

Protea Village Communal Property Association secretary, Kevin Maxwell, said he could not contain his excitement but was still “cautiously optimistic” as the process had been lengthy.

“Many of the claimants are no longer with us, they passed on and never saw the dream come true for them. There were many requirements, we had a few objections but the moral of the story is once a dream has been confirmed, we must just press through and just persevere,” Maxwell added.

He said those who took financial compensation only received around R17 500 at the time.

“I was four years old when we were removed from Protea Village.

My mother put in the claim. When she passed, we found out she lodged the claim. My grandmother was the cook at the tearoom in the botanical gardens. When I was a teenager I was a waiter. I worked there while I was at school and I used to travel with my grandmother. We’d go to the botanical gardens, knowing that was our home, the place close to which we lived,” said Maxwell.

University of Pretoria professor and filmmaker behind works including Uitgesmyt - cast out, Siona O’Connell, said the return to land for the dispossessed cannot be underestimated.

“While financial compensation for the forcibly removed has its place, I believe that the return to a place has multiple meanings for belonging, identity, and wellbeing, economic and otherwise. The breaking of ground in this well-heeled area is groundbreaking and serves as a powerful reminder that for many, the business of return and repair remains out of reach. And while the scales of land ownership remain unbalanced in South Africa, we will not be a free country.”

Development managers for the project, Dave Child of Bethel Partners, said: “We are excited to break ground on a sustainable model for land restitution that could serve as a blueprint for future projects across the the country.”

Cape Times