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MEDIA RELEASE PRESTWICH PLACE BURIALS, CAPE TOWN
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is calling a public meeting to discuss the future of the burials recently found in the Green Point area. The meeting, which is part of a public consultation process, will be held at 4pm on Friday 29 August 2003 at St Andrews Presbyterian Church, Somerset Road, Green Point. Archival and archaeological research indicates that the burials which were found accidentally during the course of development date from the eighteenth century. Being outside the formal burial grounds of the time they are likely to be associated with people who were not part of the Dutch Reformed congregation, or part of the military establishment. It is probable that they are generally associated with the poorer classes of the time, and are the remains of people with differing cultural beliefs, including slaves. The burials are in many cases highly disturbed as the result of the repeated construction and redevelopment of the site since the 1830s. Given the haphazard nature of many of the burials, there is the possibility that many of the burials result from one of the small pox epidemics which devastated the Cape in the eighteenth century. The burials clearly extend under many of the buildings and roads currently existent in the Green Point area below the Somerset Road, and as such there is a need to address the matter in a manner which provides for similar future discoveries. SAHRA firmly believes that the remains should be treated with compassion and dignity and invites the public to contribute towards a sustainable way forward premised on these principles. You may e-mail your suggestions and comments to the CEO of SAHRA on info@sahra.org.za by NOON on Friday 29/8/2003.
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