Francesca Villette
THE Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s (CPUT) decision to rename its Cape Town campus to honour its location means little for thousands of displaced District Six residents.
This is according to District Six Working Committee chairperson Shahied Ajam, who said former residents want the university to relinquish the land it lies on.
In 1966, the apartheid government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act. About 60 000 people were forcibly removed and relocated to townships and informal settlements far from the CBD.
A section of the area was used for the then Cape Technikon and over the years it has encroached on more land. Ajam said the land the university is on could accommodate about 500 families.
“The name is beautiful, but it is not justice. The former residents are still hurt by what happened in the past, and if the university is truly sorry, it will give it back to its rightful owners. The university isn’t really sorry if it does not do that,” said Ajam.
Ajam and District Six Museum director Bonita Bennett said they attended a public hearing last year, but were not properly consulted by university management. Bennett said, however, the name change was long overdue.
The university is moving swiftly along with renaming its Cape Town campus and has requested the public to comment before June 24.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said: “CPUT has always acknowledged that we unfairly benefited from the injustice of the past, and the renaming is just one step towards a more inclusive working relationship with the displaced District Six community.”
The university has so far relinquished about 42ha of land back to the Department of Rural Affairs and Land Reform, Kansley said, adding that management had indicated a will to offer bursaries and sporting facilities to surrounding communities.
Stakeholders also discussed renaming some of the buildings at the university after prominent people who had lived in the area.
To comment on the renaming process, e-mail staaka@ cput.ac.za