Page 9 - Bulletin 10 2006

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I contend that if legislation is passed closing Kalk Bay as a fishing place, that landed
property in that location would very soon quadruple itself in value, and in place of the
present fishermen’s cottages, nice houses and a good class of tenant will be attracted to
those houses. Kalk Bay will then become one of the most pleasant and attractive sea-side
resorts. The strong south-east winds are not felt in that locality to the same extent as they
are at Simon’s Town, Glencairn, Fish Hoek or Muizenberg. The fishermen are of little or
no value to the Municipality….”

However, sanity and compassion prevailed and the Hon. J. W. Sauer would have nothing to
do with any “forced removals”. With the construction of the harbour, 1913 – 19, the

continuation of fishing, and ostensibly the permanence and security of the fishing

community, were guaranteed. But this was to prove illusory.

The Slums Act and “Die Land” at Kalk Bay

By the early 1920s it was clear that there was an urgent need to build low-income housing
in many areas of the Peninsula, and in Kalk Bay in particular. Provision of such housing

became intertwined with attaining modernist ideals in architecture and planning regarding

public health and the promotion of social order. The separation, through land zoning, of
residential, commercial and industrial uses from one another became the accepted approach

(adopted from United States experience) to regulating new city expansion or redeveloping
existing areas. Ideas of residential segregation by race formed part of this approach.

Enabling legislation was enacted slowly: the first Town Planning Ordinance was passed in
1927; the municipal Town Planning Branch was established in 1934; and the Slums Act

No. 53 of 1934 was passed in the same year. In 1936 Mr. W. S. Lunn was appointed City

Engineer, a Slum Clearance Special Committee was set up, and the Council immediately
commenced planning for the redevelopment of the city’s slum areas – including parts of

Kalk Bay. (Bickford-Smith et al, 1999).

The Act empowered the Municipal Medical Officer of Health to report to Council when

cases of “nuisance” existed on any premises or part thereof. Nuisance was a wide-ranging