Town gets free pass, history lesson after ‘dompas’ debacle

FREE passes to the District Six Museum have been offered to Worcester residents in response to the green card “dompas” controversy.

This District Six Museum and Ogilvy Cape Town initiative targets Boland residents.

Museum director Bonita Bennett said the green cards were a reminder of the country’s “harrowing past”.

The Green Cards Reference Project came to light a week ago.

It was allegedly introduced by the area’s Sector 4 Forum to alleviate crime, whereby those seeking employment in the neighbourhood had to apply at the police station to get the cards.

Each card carries a mugshot of the holder and their personal details.

Sector 4 comprises 10 upper-class neigh- bourhoods, including Panorama, Fairy Glen and Somerset Park.

“The green card system is eerily reminiscent of the pass laws system, which spanned more than a century and which was abolished only in 1986,” Bennet said.

Implementing such a system was of great concern.

“It is a system of segregation which marks people as not belonging in certain areas, needing their presence to be legitimised on the basis of having or seeking jobs in those areas. We have to be always mindful of the insidious creeping of prejudice-based systems which contradict our rights-based constitution.”

The advert for the free museum pass reads: “Dear Citizens of Worcester, we’d like to offer you a free pass.

“We’d like to invite you to visit the museum, and we’ll waive our usual ticket price, because we believe the lessons you’ll learn inside are priceless.

“For instance, the history of the pass laws and the misery, indignity and severe infringement of the right of free movement they caused for several hundred years.

“We’d like you to visit us, so that you know what we hold dear: That those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.”

The green card system was abolished by national police commissioner Riah Phiyega last week.

Bennet said the museum wanted to raise awareness of South African history among local and international visitors.

“We want to remind South Africans that under our progressive construction we are all equal.”