Employment during the
Depression and the
Group Areas Act

Employment during the Depression

Relief works were offered such as temporary jobs to those lucky enough, which lasted about six months and meant digging trenches for drainage. Some, in desperation, went down to the docks and gathered crayfish (kreef, Rock Lobster) shells after the tails had been removed, and hawked these and the fins of fish in pushcarts as visvlerkies (fish flakes).

The infamous Group Areas Act

On a rainy day with torrents of water pouring down, I was sheltering against a wall of Zonnebloem College, facing the city of Cape Town. I was waiting for the Walmer Estate bus. It was in July 1976, as I stood and gazed at the devastation and destruction of what had once been District Six. As I shook my head in horror and frustration a woman standing beside me said, "Yes mister, this is what the Group did to us." She meant the infamous Group Areas Act.

Well-known District Sixers

To quote Crain Soudien, a Trafalgar High School, alma mater and intellectua, stamping ground and of several generations of political leadership: There were numerous mission schools that were managed by various denominations, such as Catholic, Anglican, Moravian, Methodist, Dutch Reform, Islam, and some board schools (non denominational). Not the least among them was Sydney St. School for mixed race children. In his book Kampvegters (champions), George Manuel gives a resume of various individuals who championed the cause of the inhabitants of District Six. Mostly mixed race coloureds that included Muslims. They are Abdullah Abdurahman, a medical doctor; Harold Cressy, first coloured man to obtain his Bachelor of Arts Degree; Al Richards, the undisputed athlete amongst coloured athletes; the charitable Hendrik Snell; Jacob Abrahams the librarian; Christian Ziervogel; Bennie Baron the philanthropist; and Charles Rorich.