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Witness History: Returning to District Six

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Returning to District Six

14/12/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Returning to District Six

Zahra Nordien returned to District Six decades after being expelled during apartheid

Zahra Nordien was forced out of District Six in Cape Town in 1977 because of the racist South African apartheid government. In 2013 she moved back into a newly rebuilt home.

When Zahra Nordien was forced out of District Six in Cape Town in 1977, she vowed to one day return. 

She was one of the 60,000 people who were forcibly removed from the neighbourhood because of the racist South African apartheid government. 

What seemed like a pipe dream became a reality when Zahra set up the District Six Working Committee campaigning to get former residents into newly rebuilt homes.

In 2013 her elderly mother moved back into District Six with Zahra, more than three decades after they were expelled.

Zahra tells Reena Stanton-Sharma about her ongoing fight for restitution.

(Photo: Cape Town, South Africa in the 1970s. Credit: Gallo Images / Juhan Kuus)

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