SUNDigital Collections

Negatives are damaged and discolored.Concert at Jabulani Amphitheatre, Soweto, Johannesbur

Marks, David

Concert at Jabulani Amphitheatre 009

This document is a newspaper article that discusses the band Latin Heat performing at the Playhouse Cellar but provides information on the band's history and discusses the program for the show.This document can also be found in hy-dm-docs-lucey-latin-heat-00

Coleman, David

The Natal Mercury

The Beat of Latin Heat

Online article reflecting on an engagement between members of the Tiervlei/ Ravensmead community and Stellenbosch Universit

Florence, de Vries

News - SU engages
community on ‘lost
memories’ of...
“The Hardekraaltjie cemetery is our only link to the lost
memory of this area."
Mr Melvin Arendse's clan name is Korana, which means
“brown face" in the language of the Khoikhoi. He grew up
in an area formerly known as Tiervlei (now Ravensmead)
and spoke these words at Stellenbosch University's (SU)
Hardekraaltjie cemetery restitution event, which was held
on Human Right's Day, 21 March 2022. The event was
hosted in partnership with members of the Tiervlei
community.
Members of the former Tiervlei community –
representatives of amongst others, the Arendse, Olivier,
Basson, Bastian, Afrika, Fortuin and Dietrich-families –
shared memories of their formative years, with
Hardekraaltjie cemetery, which is partially situated on
SU's Tygerberg campus, at the heart of it.
SU's Human Rights Day event's discussions were hosted
by Dr Leslie van Rooi, SU's senior director of
Transformation and Social Impact, Dr Therese Fish, Vice-
dean of SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
(FMHS) and Prof Aslam Fataar from SU's Department of
Education Policy Studies, who is also linked to the
University's Transformation portfolio. “This initiative,
which aptly takes place on Human Rights Day, is aimed at
restitution," said Van Rooi. “We are committed to a
restitution process for Hardekraaltjie which is
underscored by research and community participation to
remind us of a past when the dignity of the people in this
area was tragically violated."
Fataar, who led the series of discussions held at FMHS'
Tygerberg campus, said SU intended engaging with
community members for at least two years to ensure a
“deep human-centred community participation process"
that would lead to the appropriate commemoration of
those laid to rest at the site. Fataar explained that archival
and community-based research is an important part of
the restitution process. This research will “provide a
complex story about the Tiervlei community's everyday
lives linked to the cemetery.  We aim to develop a
culturally-defined story about the grief, trauma, and
dislocation caused by the cemetery's violation.  The
community participative process will decide on the
manner in which the cemetery site will be developed as a
meaningful community space for memorialisation,
education and on-going conversation," said Fataar.
The Hardekraaltjie cemetery research process to date
SU's Human Right's Day community participation process
was prefaced with a research presentation by Dr Handri
Walters, lecturer in SU's Department of Sociology and
Social Anthropology. “We cannot talk about Hardekraaltjie
cemetery without talking about apartheid and the Group
Areas Act of 1950. According to official records, the
Hardekraaltjie cemetery was in use from 1910 until its
closure in 1947. In the years between, SU's Rector, HB
Thom (1955 – 1970) regularly corresponded with the then
Cape Provincial Administration about the acquisition of
property to establish a Faculty of Medicine with an
adjoining public training hospital that would serve all
South Africans, including people of colour."
The cemetery had a central place in the then Tiervlei
community, which was subjected to forced removals
under Group Areas Act (1950) of the apartheid regime.
Today the site where the cemetery used to be extends
across sections of land owned or controlled by SU,
Tygerberg Hospital (the Western Cape Government
Health Department through the Department of Public
Works), and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa
(PRASA).
Records of correspondence from the 1950s and 1960s
outline a series of discussions between the former
government and the university's former management
structures about the location of the proposed training site
for would-be white doctors. The site had to accommodate
lecture halls, residences and sports fields. Old maps show
that Hardekraaltjie cemetery was (and still is) located on
the (former) geographical border between people of
colour and white people.
Walters' research highlighted the systemic effects of
apartheid that had manifested in the work of several
institutions which led to the end of the cemetery's
documented existence. She presented a news report
published in Die Burger on 17 May 1971 with the heading
“Begraafplaas word dalk sportveld vir Maties". Upon
reflecting on what happened to Hardekraaltjie cemetery
after this report, she presented a blank screen.
The collection of oral history in the former Tiervlei
community
Mr Chefferino Fortuin, a social historian and community
member who is researching the history of Tiervlei,
presented a talk about the oral history collection process.
“The point of community participation is to bring the
history of what is in our memory to the fore." Fortuin
emphasised that it is inordinately difficult to paint an
accurate picture of history in a place like South Africa.
“But memories and specifically the memories of the older
people still in our midst, are crucial to the memorialisation
process."
“Cemeteries act as an institution of a person's life. In
many cases, it is the only record of when you were born
and when you departed. I remember the donkey carts
carrying the coffins of our loved ones and the ritual of
visiting the graves of those who came before us, my
grandparents included. Hardekraaltjie was our place of
sanctity and it is important that we acknowledge it as
such, for us and the generations after us," said
Ravensmead community member and former staff
member of the FMHS, Mr Daniël Dietrich.
Mrs Anna Afrika Valentyn remembers coffins on a wagon
and walking carefully to ensure they didn't cross (colour)
lines. “My grandparents, Anna and Petrus Afrika, are
buried here."
Ms Shantal Fortuin said she was grateful for the
opportunity to speak freely about a part of her history she
uncovered at SU's community engagement process.
Fortuin learned who her great-grandparents were at SU's
first Hardekraaltjie memorialisation event on 24
September 2021.
Community member and Khoisan leader, Mr Melvin
Arendse said Hardekraaltjie is the epicentre of brown
people's history in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. “In
this cemetery lies human remains that is more than 150
years old. The entire Tygerberg area was one of the last
spaces of conflict. The people buried here are linked to
more than 230 coloured families across the Western
Cape."
Mr Tromp, an 80 year old resident in the area,
passionately argued for a view of restitution that provides
a platform for addressing the community's on-going
poverty and social problems, which he argued, is tied to
the impact of forced removals in the area since the 1950s.
Hardekraaltjie memorialisation process
SU and the Tygerberg Hospital has committed to a
restorative process to decide how the cemetery site and
those buried there would be memorialised. Van Rooi led
discussions about the memorialisation process at the
Human Rights Day event. “There is a plea that we
memorialise this site in an effort to work toward greater
heritage acknowledgement as we continue our
interactions with the community."
A contextualisation board explaining the historical
importance of the site and the process SU has embarked
on, will be erected in due course.
“Ultimately, we are looking to community members to give
input into how we appropriately recognise both the
tragedy of Hardekraaltjie and the restitution process."
Ideas at the 21 March event included a wall with the
names of the family members buried there and a memorial
garden.
According to Fataar, the Hardekraaltjie restitution process
will include the creation of a digital archive, so that the
story of the “lost" memory of the area in question could
be further memorialised for a younger audience.
The Hardekraaltjie restitution process will be guided by
SU's Visual Redress Policy, which emphasises restitution,
inclusivity and cohesion in the University's visual, cultural
and symbolic activities. Ongoing community participation
will involve several stakeholders, including Tygerberg
Hospital, PRASA, members of local communities and the
Tiervlei community, and Heritage Western Cape. 


SU engages community on ‘lost memories’ of...

This item contains two documents. The first document is a photograph of two individuals standing above a crowd. The second document is a pamphlet for OppiKoppi and provides a program for 3 days

Oppikoppie pamphlet

Black and white image of a house in Tiervle

Tiervlei House

Negative in good condition.SABC Recording

SABC Studios staff and performers 004

SABC Studios staff and performers 003

Negatives are damaged and discolored.The No Name Brothers. Westville, Durban

The No Name Brothers 008

Item located in folder hy-dm-docs-1941-1996-001The programme includes a message from the British ministry of shipping coupled by a brief history and inception of the Operatic and Dramatic Society. Photographs of those featured in the production is presented alongside their names and character titles. The programme also contains a list of previous successful productions as well as a list of society members during the year 1941

Johannesburg Operatic Society

Merchant Navy Fund

Cooper, May

Dunn, Tom

Mulcahy, Ruth

Allan, John

Rigby-Foster, C.

Kinghorn, Gordon

Adams, Angus

Berold, Ivan

Abel, Mike

Sullivan, Sylvia

Salmon, Perry

Bell. Drummond

Steafel, Eda

The Lilac Domino

Item located in folder hy-dm-docs-1941-1996-001The poster includes a map illustration, directions, a list for what to bring, the available facilities, the time, dates and information pertaining to ticket sales. A list of featured musicians have also been included

Not a member yet