‘We want Bo-Kaap back’
TOO EXPENSIVE: ORIGINAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS BEING ‘FORCED OUT’
Foreigners buying properties, rise in rates pricing locals out of their own area.
Members of Cape Town’s famous BoKaap community have taken to the streets in a series of protests that aim to take back their neighbourhood.
Factors such as the rise in rates and the buying of property by wealthy foreign nationals have made Bo-Kaap an area where many of its original community members can no longer afford to live.
A mass boeka, a traditional meal held to break the fast during Ramadan, was held yesterday on the street, with those involved inviting any person who wanted to show their support to join the meal.
A group called Bo-Kaap Rise is spearheading the protest. They hope to get the area declared a heritage site, which would ensure that developing it further would not be allowed.
Financial changes in the area have also led to social changes, with a member of the Bo-Kaap Rise saying that mosques in the area have been asked to lower the sound of the call to prayer, a request seen as insulting in a predominantly Muslim area.
Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, has claimed “sinister forces” are behind the protests, and said he has footage showing some protesters do not live in the area.
Residents deny these claims and have responded by requesting that Smith releases the footage.
Comedian Yaaseen Barnes, who has family from Bo-Kaap, has been vocal in his support for the Bo-Kaap Rise movement.
“People are buying land and putting up office blocks and hotels. The combination of this ongoing gentrification and rates in the area going up because of the drought means that many people are being priced out of the area,” said Barnes. “These people then have to move far out to where they can still afford to live, far from their communities and jobs.
“This has been happening for about a decade.”
He added that while the City of Cape Town “loves putting Bo-Kaap on postcards”, they are not truly supportive of attempts to preserve the community.
Barnes said that those who are involved are hoping this is a cause that will be championed by people from outside the area and that the importance of preserving the community will be understood not just by those who live there.
“The movement wants to show that this is not a Muslim issue, it’s a Cape Town issue,” he says.
This is not a Muslim issue, it’s a Cape Town issue.