Removed family wins right in court to Rondebosch memorial plaque

A COURT has ordered the erection of a memorial plaque on the Rondebosch land from which a family was removed under apartheid.

The Florences are tangled in an ongoing legal struggle – which is set to go to the country’s highest court, according to their lawyer – for fair compensation over the loss of their property, “Sunny Croft”, in Kromboom Road, Fraserdale Estate.

It is now the site of a parking lot and part of the M5 highway.

The Land Claims Court awarded the family just over R1.5 million in financial compensation, plus R10 000 for pain and suffering, in June last year.

No order was made as to the memorial plaque the family requested be erected on the land.

They then took the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which has now ordered that the State is to pay the costs of the plaque.

“The memorial plaque is of a symbolic and spiritual importance and its erection will acknowledge the hurt, indignity and injustice suffered by the Florence family and the other families in the area,” Judge Zukiswa Tshiqi wrote in a judgment handed down on Friday.

The SCA ruled against the family, however, in their appeal against the compensation amount, citing case law on the subject.

But Legal Resources Centre attorney Henk Smith, who is representing the family, said their instructions were to press ahead with an application to the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal.

Isabel Florence, who is leading the family’s land claim struggle after the death of her husband Lionel a few years ago, told the Cape Times that while the memorial plaque was important to the family, she still felt justice had not yet been done.

“We feel maybe our case can help other people like us who suffered and are still suffering today,” she said.

Lionel Florence and his two brothers, Norman and Ronald (also now deceased), bought the property in 1957 after having rented it for several years.

They were removed in 1970 under the Group Areas Act and forced to sell it back to the previous owner.

While they had already paid off R14 896 for the property – then estimated to be worth R31 778 – the old owner refunded them only R1 350.