ANC statement commemorating 50 years since race segregation laws heralded the destruction of District Six
11 February 2016
The African National Congress (ANC) joins South Africans, but the people of Cape Town in particular, in remembering 50 years since the start of the destruction of District Six.
The ANC further notes the bittersweet significance of the date of the 11th of February: a day when in 1990 the late Isithwalandwe/Seaparankoe, Father of our Nation and Icon of our Struggle, Comrade Nelson Mandela walked out of the gates of Victor Verster Prison a free man; but on the same date back in 1966, the architects of apartheid signed the death-knell of one of the few multiracial townships in apartheid South Africa.
Originally established in 1987 in terms of a colonial ordinance, District Six began as a community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants.
Given its close proximity to the city (and sources of employment), over the years it evolved into a township that was one of the few areas in apartheid South Africa where people of all races and cultures could live, meet, socialize and interact. This was a microcosm of a non-racial settlement on our shores.