THE Protea Village Community marked a historic milestone in their long journey to return to their ancestral home in Bishopscourt, with a sod-turning ceremony signaling the commencement of construction of engineering services for the homes of 86 returning families.

The community was the first to settle in the area in 1834, living on around 28 hectares of land, which also housed a church, playing fields, a shop and a spring that supplied drinking water. After residing there for generations, the community was forcibly displaced between 1959 and 1970 under the Group Areas Act.

Following their successful land claim in 1995, 86 families opted for the restoration of their rights to the land.

In 2006, the National Department of Public Works and the City of Cape Town awarded erven 212 and 242 in Bishopscourt, totalling around 12 hectares, to the community.

Following nine years of consultations between the community, government departments and the private sector, a cross-subsidisation model was developed that will see the 86 homes for the returning families funded by the sale of open-market plots on one side of Kirstenbosch Drive, in the Bishopscourt Estate development.

The community has chosen to retain 4 hectares, one third of the returned land, as a publicly accessible greenbelt that will run along the Liesbeek river.

The project has been mired with delays, including two court challenges and multiple appeals during the planning application processes, which has meant that the Protea Village Community has not been able to return home nearly 30 years after they lodged their claim.

A number of significant milestones were achieved over the past four years, including the transfer of the awarded land to the Protea Village Communal Property Association (CPA), grant funding being approved by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and town planning approval, which meant the project was finally able to progress.

Construction of the engineering services for the Bishopscourt development started last October, with sales of the first phase of open-market plots launching the same month. In a few weeks, all thirty-three plots that went on the market were under offer.

“Today’s sod-turning ceremony is the culmination of a process involving many stakeholders and finally marks the beginning of the physical rebuilding of our community,” said Protea Village CPA Chairman Andre Maxwell.

“This is more than just a housing development; it is the restoration of dignity, history, and generational wealth for families who were unjustly displaced. After decades of struggle, we are witnessing the rebirth of Protea Village – a place where past injustices are being corrected, and a new legacy is being built,” he added.

In his keynote speech, Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development Mzwanele Nyhontso said: “Our humanity is related to our connectedness, with other human beings, with our environment and with our history. As a tightly knit community you remained connected with each other, nurturing the bonds of neighbourliness that you built over generations. I must applaud you for converting this spirit of good neighbourliness into a well-functioning Communal Property Association or CPA.”