Page 109 - KBHA BULLETIN 4

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Some of the names on the list of affected properties are ticked off. These are owners whose

properties were subsequently bought by a member of the right racial group. Other names
remain on the list, however, and these are the people who for various reasons managed to stay

in Kalk Bay despite continuous threats by the CDB.

In the fifteen years before the rescinding of the proclamation, a total of some 120 individuals
– around twenty-two families, one quarter of the fishing community at the time – had to leave

Kalk Bay as a result of the proclamation. Out of these, nine were property-owning families,

and some thirteen families were tenants. Not included in this number are the cases in which
disqualified owners were forced to sell property in Kalk Bay in which they were not resident.

For example, there was the case of Dominion Theatres, on the corner of Main / Colyn roads,

which was sold under the GAA in 1970. Also not included in this number are families who
left as a consequence of the 1964 announcement that Kalk Bay was to be ‘zoned’ by the

GADB.

Usually, when the original owner of an affected property passed away, the CDB took action
and prevented the remaining family from inheriting the house. The widow or widower was

required to leave the property within a year, and in the meantime apply for a permit to remain

in the house whilst looking for alternative accommodation. He or she would also have to pay
rent to the new owner, since the property was usually sold before they were able to move out.

In one case, a Kalk Bay family avoided the inevitable eviction that followed the passing away

of the owner by simply declining to register the owner’s death. For some eighteen years the
house remained registered in the name of the deceased person. The strategy worked, and the

family still owns the house. It meant, however, among other inconveniences, that during

those years the family was unable to take a loan on the property in order to upgrade it.

One belief that I came across during my interviews is the idea that people who moved under

the GAA did so more or less willingly, wishing to leave their dilapidated houses for
something better. To some extent this is true – some of the cottages were crowded and badly

maintained, and some of those who moved tell me that they are indeed more content where
they now live. These are exceptions, however. For most, leaving Kalk Bay was traumatic,

and involved an abrupt severing of deeply felt social and historical connections, both to the
community and to the landscape itself.

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