Grave consultation over site

2003-08-16 16:11

Cape Town - The "final" public consultation on a mass grave unearthed during construction in a prime position in central Cape Town took place at Alexander Sinton High School on Saturday.

About 50 people attended the report back on the public consultation process, done in terms of the conditions attached to an exhumation permit issued by the SA Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) to the Archaeological Contracts Office on behalf of the developer, which allowed for a 60-day period of consultation from June 9 to August 16.

According to Dr Antonia Malan of the University of Cape Town's Cultural Sites and Resources Forum the report back on the public consultation process would help inform a final report to be submitted to SAHRA on August 19.

Test case

"This is a test case for the implementation of the National Heritage Resources Act and associated regulations and guidelines to an accidentally discovered, historically old and complex burial ground in an urban redevelopment context," she said.

Malan said in a document circulated before Saturday's meeting that local and national heritage management, and co-operative governance was under scrutiny, as well as the "procedures and effectiveness" of public consultation.

According to this document, the Prestwich Place site covered an area of 1 200 square meters, with the team exhuming skeletons over 30% of this area and finding on average about one skeleton per square meter.

"This meant that the current site as a whole is likely to yield over 1 000 skeletons. This would be the largest number of skeletons ever recovered from a single burial ground in South Africa, and posed considerable challenges in terms of curation and storage," she said.

Slaves

Archaeologists and experts believe the site to be that of an 18th century burial ground where slaves and others found their final resting place.

"The present site conforms to several aspects of the legislation, and scores very high on significance issues such as value to the community and as an archaeological site," Malan said at the meeting, which discussed various implications and scenarios of the discovery.

Some of the suggestions raised included the possible "freezing" of all development in the Green Point area or declaring the entire CBD as an "archaeological area". The possibility of extending the 60-day deadline for further consultation was also mooted.

Father Michael Wheeder, who has done research into slavery in Cape Town, said that perhaps the British government as current representatives of the former colonial administration, should now by approached "for reparations and compensation".

Meanwhile, SAHRA chief executive officer, Pumla Madiba said that she "trusted South Africans will be able to deal with the matter objectively, for the good of the country".

Madiba, who was not at the meeting, said that the final decision must weigh up the priorities of "preserving and respecting culture and at the same time developmental needs".

- SAPA