Film brings truth home

Many CPUT students unaware of painful District Six history

A SERIES telling the stories of people uprooted by apartheid laws from their homes in District Six today debuts on more than 50 TV monitors at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s city campus.

The campus is on the site from which families were forced to move by the Group Areas Act from the mid-1960s.

Film- maker and former Weekend Argus journalist Yazeed Kamaldien said he was prompted to work on the 12-part series, This Was Our Home, after discovering most CPUT students were unaware of the history of District Six.

“I was surprised when I found out that a lot of CPUT students did not know the history of District Six. I felt CPUT should make an effort, so that’s how the idea of this film came about,” Kamaldien said.

He said he found it disappointing that there were no landmarks marking District Six’s history at the campus.

“In a country where we’re talking about reconciliation, we need to acknowledge our past. There is no public narrative for District Six, and a public narrative is important for healing.”

Some of those uprooted from District Six would be in the audience and tell their stories, Kamaldien said.

He said those he’d interviewed for the series had been emotional. William Petersen said the filming had forced him to “relive the whole District Six experience”.

Petersen, who has a tuck shop situated between CPUT and St Mark’s Church, said through his business he had never lost the connection to the area, although the evictions had hurt him.

“As someone born and bred here, I’m happy someone is trying to tell our stories,” he said.

Lauren Kansley, CPUT spokeswoman, said the institution endorsed the documentary. She said the institution understood the legacy of the District Six area and its relationship with CPUT was fragile and painful.

This Was Our Home being screened on the campus would mark a step towards making students and staff more conscious about the history of the space they occupied.

Kamaldien previewed an unfinished cut of his film at the Infecting the City art festival last month.

There is a free screening of the series between 10am and 2pm open to the general public at St Mark’s.

Film-maker Yazeed Kamaldien, inset, has shot a 12-part series, This Was Our Home, about District 6.