the center of Cape Town, which had been the home of a vibrant Coloured
community. since at least the early nineteenth century. The homes were
razed and the inhabitants relocated to the sandy, wind-swept Cape flats. In
Durban, many Indians also suffered severely,losing homes and businesses
in areas zoned for Whites. 12
The government claimed that these removals were voluntary. In fact, it
intimidated the victims and when they resisted used force. An African
woman who had been moved to a Homeland told an interviewer: "When
they came to us, they came with guns and police....
They did not say
anything, they just threw our belongings in [the government trucks] . . . .
Wedid not know, we still do not know this place.....
And when we came
here, they dumped our things; just dumped our things so that we are still
here. What can we do now, we can do nothing. Wecan do nothing. What
can we do?"13
One cannot know for sure how many Blacks were uprooted by those
measures. The number was certainly vast. The Surplus People Project,
which made a thorough study of the removals, estimated that 3,548,900
people were removed between 1960 and 1983: 1,702,400 from the towns,
1,129,000 from farms, 614,000 from black spots, and 103,500from stra-
tegic and developmental areas.14