The 1913 Land Act: The Cornerstone of the Apartheid

1959: Sophia Refugee crying in the street

"I used to play here with my mates when this was our house, when Mom and Dad and Me lived here. But then the Big Men and The Big Machines came and knocked down all the houses and my friends have gone away and I'm lonely and I don't know where we're going now. That's why I'm crying."

Cape Town, 1974

Reality of District 6.

1974: Forced removals

Buildings in Cape Town's District Six being demolished.

1983: Dumped!

Beestekraal was a 'dumping ground' for those forcibly removed under the apartheid system. They were given tents and toilets. Farmworkers evicted from their farms also were sent here.

1984: Number 239

Home in Valspan, an area threatened by apartheid forced removals. The residents were not allowed to repair their homes, and only very basic services were provided. The Apartheid government then designated the area a 'slum'. The number on the door indicates that removal is immanent

1984: Mrs Hlatswayo

Mrs Hlatswayo built a new home in Driefontein,
which was an area deemed a 'black spot' by the apartheid government. Farmworkers who were evicted from neighbouring white owned farms were given refuge in Driefontein.

Mr Timothy Hlatswayo had been injured when the tractor driving farmworkers home, overturned. The farmer refused to accept responsibility for the accident, and evicted him from the farm.

1984: Mr Cwaile, Valspan activist, outside his home

Valspan was an area threatened by apartheid forced removals. The residents were not allowed to repair their homes and only very basic services were provided. The apartheid government then designated the area a 'slum'. The number on the door indicates that removal is immanent.

1984: A 'black spot'

Tinkie, a praise singer, with Jill, a member of Black Sash. Mathopiestad was a productive farming area deemed a 'black spot' by the apartheid Government and threatened by forced removal.

1984: Packed and forced to leave

A man has been forced to leave his home in Moogopa.

1985: Woman plastering walls with mud

Daggakraal was an area deemed a 'black spot' by the apartheid government and was threatened with forced removal. Maintaining the home was seen as resistance to removal.

1986: Toilets and thorn bushes

People who were forcibly removed by the Apartheid Government, were sometimes given tents but toilets were always available. This sight of rows of toilets in desolate areas would give knowledge of immanent forced removals.

1987: The resistance

Women clearing communal areas as part of the resistance against removal. The people of Oukasie (Brits) were threatened with removal to Lethlabile an area in Bophuthatswana.

1987: Betty Nakona

Betty Nakona dumped with her possessions in a resettlement area in Botshabelo.

1988: What's next?

Meeting under tree to discuss possible removal from their land at Ntombi's Camp in KwaZuluNatal.

1989: Preparing for court

Lawyer Nicholas (Fink) Haysom with Lydia Kompe explaining to Mogopa people what may happen in court. The Bakwena ba Mogopa were removed from their farms on 14 February 1984 to Pachsdraai, an area in the Bophuthatswana 'homeland'. From there some of them preferred to live on their Paramount Chief's land and some were later moved to Onderstepoort.

1989: The resistance to the removals

Residents and representatives of various organisations take part in a march on municipal offices in Port Nolloth to demand that Tente Dorp not be moved.

The resilient spirit of Africa

Music was a solution to make the most of being forcibly removed.

1991: Squatters

Police watch squatters whose homes have been demolished.