White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest

Date: 10 Aug 1977
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

About 100 White sympathisers joined evicted Black squatters in a protest against the demolition of shanty dwellings outside Cape Town. This was the third day of an operation aimed removing an estimated 26,000 squatters from three camps. In the 1970s and 80s the Apartheid government embarked on a concerted effort of destroying informal settlements where Black people lived. In 1976 and 1977 massive evictions and destruction of settlements took place at Unibel Modderdam, Werkgenot and KTC, a Black township near Nyanga. The government could not destroy the Crossroads settlement because it had acquired legal status as a place of settlement. The Apartheid government then shifted its attention to destroying settlements that had sprung up around Crossroads.

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How we know this

01South African History Online, ‘Cape Town’, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za (Accessed: 06 August 2013)
02O’Malley, P. ‘1977’, from Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, [online], available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za (Accessed: 06 August 2013)

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

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South African History Online. (2013, August 8). White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest . South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096284

South African History Online (2013) 'White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest ', South African History Online, 8 August. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096284 (Accessed: 25 August 2026).

South African History Online, White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096284, (accessed 25 August 2026).

"White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest ." South African History Online, 8 Aug. 2013, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096284. Accessed 25 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "White sympathisers join evicted Black squatters in a protest ." South African History Online. August 8, 2013. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096284.