Staff Writer
FOUR places – a school, cathedral, rock shelter and langhuis(a farm building) – have been declared provincial heritage sites on the eve of National Heritage Day today.
Harold Cressy High School in District Six and St George’s Cathedral in Wale Street were recognised yesterday as significant sites in the Struggle, the rock shelter at Diepkloof, near Elands Bay, for its treasure of engraved ostrich eggshell fragments, and the surviving langhuis structures that were unique to a hamlet on the shores of Verlorenvlei.
Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said these sites reflected the province’s heritage.
During the forced removals under the Group Areas Act, Harold Cressy High School and its staff and pupils were among those at the forefront of resistance to apartheid.
In 1985 the school played an active role in the school boycotts and no teaching took place for four months. “The school represents resistance to apartheid laws and an association with forced removals, segregation and academic excellence,” Mbombo said.
The cathedral was a prominent site for protests against social injustices.
Then-Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a leading voice in the Struggle and led an anti-apartheid march of 30 000 people from the cathedral on September 13, 1989.
Mbombo said Diepkloof was one of the few sites that yielded evidence of early artistic expression.
“Diepkloof has 270 intentionally engraved ostrich eggshell fragments which have been uncovered.”
Archaeological remains found in the rock shelter gave a glimpse into life between 200 000 and 50 000 years ago on the continent.
Jean-Philippe Rigaud, from the University of Bordeaux, has worked with UCT archaeologist John Parkington since the early 1990s on excavations at the shelter.
Verlorenvlei was regarded as one of the most important estuarine systems in the Western Cape, Mbombo said.
According to the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa, the Verlorenvlei hamlet developed an architectural style in the 1700s that was distinct from the classic Cape farmhouse. In the 19th century the area experienced boom years because of grain and fish production around Verlorenvlei.
Andrew Hall, chief executive of Heritage Western Cape, said the four sites were the only ones added to the list of 2 500 heritage places.
The provincial department, working with the national government, is preparing a nomination to Unesco in 2016 to recognise six sites in the province, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as a single World Heritage Site, as they tell the story of the emergence of modern humans.
The sites are Pinnacle Point and Blombos cave near Mossel Bay, the Diepkloof shelter on the West Coast, in the Western Cape, the Border and Sibudu caves in KwaZulu-Natal, and Klasies River caves in the Eastern Cape.
The department hopes Unesco will declare these sites a World Heritage Site by 2018.