Saving Princess Vlei

By being an active member of the GCTCA , CBBRA is demonstrating that it is prepared to be active on a much larger stage than simply the interests of only it own area of jurisdiction. It is important that such activities embrace the full spectrum of all levels of society, regardless of locality and standards of living.

For details of the GCTCA see ‹‹here››



MEMORANDUM: PRESENTED TO THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN: ALDERMAN DAN PLATO
5 October 2009

Why the City should not sell ERF 82176 PRINCESS VLEI, much less allow a shopping centre on it

Princess Vlei is a lake between Grassy Park and Retreat which has been badly damaged and the surrounding vegetation invaded by alien plants and destroyed through urban activities. It is identified in the Spatial development Proposals that will shortly serve before council as a “green site” to be preserved.

For twelve years the City of Cape Town has worked to get all the necessary authorizations to be able to sell a part of the shoreline to a developer for the construction of a large shopping centre. Almost the only remaining step is the actual sale.

The GCTCA and LOGRA CIVIC, in consultation and collaboration with the Cape Flats Wetland Forum, the Zandvlei Trust, WESSA (the Wildlife & Environmental Society of Southern Africa), and other local civil society associations from all over Cape Town wishes to implore the City of Cape Town political heads to reconsider what we assess to be a bad planning decision and instead to use and care for the Princess Vlei area in a much more sustainable way.


We consider the proposed development of a retails shopping complex, with a taxi-rank and 600 parking bays to be an inappropriate development on current public open space which is eco-sensitive and has, hitherto unrecognised, cultural and heritage significance for the first nation people of the Southern tip of Africa whose descendants live all over the Flats today.
It is a place where local people have for years conducted baptisms and other religious ceremonies, fished, played sport and relaxed in the sun. This is where a poignant Khoi legend is reported to have taken place.

According to stories told by Khoi herders, passed on by slaves and recounted by Jose Burman in Safe To The Sea (Human & Rousseau 1962) the vlei was named for a powerful Khoi Princess whose headquarters was in what is today called the Elephant Eye cave on Constantiaberg, clearly visible from the vlei. She and her Gorachoqua people would bring their cattle down the Princess Kasteel Stream to the vlei. While bathing there in 1510, she was abducted by sailors from the ship of Portuguese explorer Francesco d’Almeida, who also died in a skirmish at the Cape, and either murdered or taken to Portugal. According to local tradition, her tears formed Little Princess Vlei and one person drowns each year in Princess Vlei in retribution.
During the 499 years that followed, the Gorachoqua and their descendants suffered enslavement, dispossession, deculturation, apartheid, forced removal and countless other injustices. Deprived of access to most of Cape Town’s recreational beaches and scenic sites, they nicknamed the northern shore of Princess Vlei “Claremont Beach” and the area around Little Princess Vlei “Galaland”. But although Princess Vlei remained a popular site for outdoor recreation, religious worship and baptism, it was poorly managed and badly neglected by the City, as for example when used on occasion to dump sand and rubble from roadworks on Prince George Drive and silt dredged from the lake.

Many Khoi descendants on the Cape Flats regard the cave, the vlei and the Princess Kasteel Stream connecting them, to be their culturally and historically most valued sites in Cape Town. A shopping centre on the vlei shore would destroy the site and be an insult to all descendants of the Khoisan.

There is now growing local opposition to the shopping centre.

The Baseline Study, EIA, public participation, RoD and approval process entirely failed to take into account the cultural and historical importance of Princess Vlei.

Our plea is that the undesirable and inappropriate development be taken under revision and that the sale of the land not proceeds. We would like to see the City holding on to the land in trust for the people and develop the site in a more appropriate way that would restore respect for the heritage value it holds. It could become the first real memory park, with appropriate spaces to highlight the cultural significance, which would be a tourism attraction as well. We need to display local history and Princess Vlei offers such an opportunity.

Furthermore, the original vegetation of the site earmarked for the development is classified nationally as Critically Endangered, which the City has a duty to rehabilitate and conserve.
The “Dressing the Princess” project of the Cape Flats Wetland Forum with local volunteers, schoolchildren and other partners is currently successfully restoring fynbos on part of the site. This demonstrates the local interest and potential for improved use of this valuable public open space.

We believe the proposed development is inappropriate and will destroy both the natural environment and the potential cultural, recreational and tourism value of the site. There is strong local opposition to the development for various cultural, economic, religious, recreational and ecological reasons. Capetonians have a history of living together and respecting all cultures and our beautiful environment and from all corners of the City of Cape Town, join us in this plea.
Many would see this development as sacrilege, both in respect of heritage and biodiversity significance.

PHILIP M BAM
CHAIRPERSON: LOGRA CIVIC and THE GREATER CAPE TOWN CIVIC ALLIANCE.