District Six: 60 years since mixed-race community was declared whites-only area

Wednesday marks 60 years since District Six, a mixed-race community, was declared a whites-only area.

The Group Areas Act of 1950 reserved the neighbourhood exclusively for whites and disqualified all non-residents.

The implementation of the law led to forced evictions, which displaced about 60,000 people from a once vibrant and multicultural community.

An 84-year-old former resident, Sister Patience Washington, spoke to Lester Kiewit on the CapeTalk Breakfast Show on Tuesday morning.

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She said many former residents still carried the anger and pain of the injustice they endured.

"That was a bigger blow than the zoning of District Six as a white area. People were scattered. It broke up families. And District Six community was a very close community," Washington said.

She added that District Six was a tight-knit community.

"We were there for each other. There was no finger-pointing because we all lived on the same level, most of us. And that was really, really a big knock."