1.
GVs Bloemhof housing complex (2 shots)
0.06

2.
SV Woman hanging washing, GV flats with washing on balconies
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3.
SCU Woman watching, PULL BACK to SV furniture loaded on to truck
0.27

4.
SV Board up windows and doors
0.37

5.
GV PAN transit camp, Elsies River, GV Children playing in compound (2 shots)
1.01

6.
GV Apartment block Elsies River
1.07

7.
GV & SV bulldozers knocking down buildings in District 6 (2 shots)
1.22

8.
SV Two women PULL BACK TO GV one building left standing
1.38

9.
GV PAN (2 shots) new building at Bloemhof
2.05

10.
GV PAN & GV new housing at Mitchell's Plain (3 shots)
2.26




Initials





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The authorities in South Africa are pressing on with the removal of coloured (mixed race) families from District 6, in the heart of Cape Town. The District has been designated for white housing under the Group Areas Act. Recently, the Minister of Community Development, Mr. Pen Kotze, announced that there would be no more large-scale removals after this; and leaders of the coloured community are demanding that the move out of District 6 should be stopped.

SYNOPSIS: It is right in the centre of Cape Town, under Table Mountain, and has been a coloured area historically for more than 300 years. Most of the people have lived there all their lives. Now the coloured families are being moved out in batches of about 400 at a time. Under government plans, they will all have gone by next March.

This particular estate, Bloemhof Flats, will not be demolished. The apartments are to be renovated for white residents. One argument being used against the removal is that there are people in Cape Province in urgent need of housing: those living in transit camps and tenements in Elsies River, for instance, an area where there were serious riots six months ago. Some City Councillors have suggested that the coloureds should be left where they are, and the districts earmarked for them should be used to house people from the waiting list instead.

Much of District 6 is already coming down. A local Roman Catholic priest has said the removal policy has caused deep frustration and bitterness in the coloured community and this has been behind the recent unrest in Cape Province. He said "One senses the hatred in the hearts of people who live under constant threat of being flushed out of their homes."
They have known what was likely to happen since 1966 when the area was first allocated to whites by the present Prime Minister, Mr. P.W. Botha, then Minister of Community Development. New apartment blocks are already going up. They will be occupied by police and defence force personnel. Later will come white luxury housing and a new shopping centre.

Mitchell's Plain is one of three estates to which the coloured families are being sent. They are not objecting to the housing itself; but they do object to having to live 25 kilometres (15 miles) out from the city centre; and to having to move at all.