Some families who were forcibly removed from one of Cape Town’s most affluent suburbs under apartheid are a step closer to returning home, with construction of 86 restitution houses now under way in Bishopscourt, reports News24.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis joined Protea Village families yesterday, following the city’s completion of its R83m bulk services infrastructure project.

The city also released R320m in land towards the development.

Protea Village was established in 1834 when newly freed slaves settled on land near the historic Protea Farm. The community helped establish Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in 1910.

But after the area was declared a whites-only zone in 1957 under the Group Areas Act, about 200 families were forcibly removed between 1959 and 1970.

While 46 families accepted financial compensation, 86 opted to wait for their land to be returned, a claim first lodged in 1995.

According to Hill-Lewis, the project not only restored dignity and redressed apartheid’s spatial legacy, but it also presented a scalable restitution model that could help shape future programmes across SA.

Protea Village Communal Property Association chairperson Andre Maxwell said the progress was particularly significant for families returning to their ancestral land after decades.

Full News24 report