A new Lady Selborne is rising from apartheid’s ashes

A suburb that apartheid tried to destroy has come alive again, and in great style. Some of the original inhabitants of Lady Selborne, on the edge of Pretoria, and one of the many urban settlements that fell to apartheid bulldozers, have trickled home.

It has risen from the ashes of the old one, which the authorities, threatened by the idea of a multiracial, predominantly black, highly politicised and literate community living so close to the city, had declared a “black spot” it hoped to obliterate from history with the might of its bulldozers, police and army.

Similar and grander mansions of varying sizes and designs stand as a monument to the resilience of the Selbornites, who with protests and through the courts fought to save their land.

After the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 was passed, families who had been forced to move began lodging claims to get back the land they had lost.

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