Prestwich Memorial

Prestwich Place in Green Point in Cape Town has long been a subject of class and racial conflict in the Western Cape. During the early colonial period the area was used as a burial ground that included Dutch Reformed Church burials and a large number of unmarked graves of the free slaves, blacks, washer women etc. In the 1820s the area was sub-divided and sold, it then became part of the developed urban core of the Cape. In the 1960s, blacks and coloureds were forcibly removed from the area to the Cape Flats. In 2003, construction activities in the area uncovered human bones and as required by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) Act, construction was halted and Archaeologists from the University of Cape Town (UCT) were contracted to investigate. Exhumations of the human remains began, even though the public consultation process that is required by the SAHRA Act had not yet been finalised. This led to a new form of conflict that was amongst academics, civil society groups, developers and government officials.