Former residents of Harfield Village, Claremont and Newlands who were evicted during Apartheid were given a warm welcome by current Harfield Village residents during the third annual Walk of Remembrance, on Heritage Day, Tuesday September 24.

The Walk of Remembrance was organised by the Newlands/Claremont Heritage, Environmental Justice and Restitution Society (NCHERS), an organisation helping to preserve the stories of those who were forcefully removed from Claremont and Newlands under Apartheid (“Memories of a community broken by Apartheid,” Southern Suburbs Tatler, September 28, 2023)

Previous walks were held in 2021 and 2022 in different parts of Claremont and Newlands, but last year’s walk was cancelled due to stormy weather at the time, and an indoor event was held instead at Livingstone High School.

More than 100 former residents, along with the Young Guiding Stars Sacred String Band, walked from Livingstone High along Leraar Street and Princess Road, then past the Harvey Road Mosque and down Second Avenue, Hereford Street and Third Avenue, past Rosmead Central Primary.

Harfield Village residents had decorated their bins with hearts to welcome the former residents during the walk, while the former residents took pictures of the houses that had once been their homes.

Former Harfield Village residents Kulsum Viljoen and her sister, Shireen Petersen, joined the walk. Ms Viljoen said she had previously stayed in a big house in Devon Street with her parents, Kayna and Nasser Viljoen, and grandparents, Marley and Albert Martin.

“It was one of the best experiences especially during Christmas,” said Ms Viljoen, who now stays in Salt River.

She used to play piano with her grandfather and said they had had the best of neighbours, she said.

She was 5 when the family moved to Walmer Estate.

Former resident Gerald Alexander, 70, previously stayed in Harvey Road.

“I had the best of times living there. I could stay out and play until 3am in the morning. It was safe and the doors were not even locked,” he said.

Mr Alexander was in his 20s when he moved to Steenberg with his family.

“The atmosphere is gone. I only see high walls and many people who lived here are no longer alive,” he said.

NCHERS committee member Imam Rashied Omar said the walk was an opportunity to help people heal and share their memories and introduce their children to where they had lived.

Harfield Village Association chairperson James Fernie said: “We as current residents wish to honour and show our respect for what the former residents went through.

“We also thank the current residents for painting their bins with hearts, to show their respect to the former residents.”

Ward 58 councillor Dr Richard Hill and Ward 59 councillor Mikhail Manuel joined the walk.

Dr Hill said it acted “to restore our faith in each other towards a better South Africa” while Mr Manuel said the NCHERS was doing important work to bring people together to remember and cherish their heritage.

Visit https://nchers.org/ to learn more about the NCHERS.

Harfield Village residents Jen and Graham Rowe with their bin, which they decorated with hearts.

Sisters Shireen Petersen and Kulsum Viljoen in Devon Street, Harfield Village, where they lived as children.

The Newlands/Claremont Heritage, Environmental Justice and Restitution Society received a wire-sculpture of a heart from the Harfield Village Association. Pictured are members of both groups along with members of the Young Guiding Stars Sacred String Band.

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