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The 24th of September, marked Heritage Day 2016. The City of Cape Town would like to encourage all South Africans, especially the youth, to remember all the lessons from the past and embrace our differences during the celebrations today. The City has hosted a number of successful outings during Heritage Month where learners were able to visit some of the special heritage sites around the city. Read more below:
The City of Cape Town’s 2016 heritage programme focused on the youth of Cape Town. Groups including interns from the City of Cape Town and learners from primary and high schools across the metro were taken on various heritage site visits and tours over the past few weeks.
‘What programmes like these deliver, and what we strive for most, is creating an understanding and respect for our common history, our common empathy, and our sense of common purpose. It is important that we never forget the legacies of where we come from, and the responsibility that we all have towards where we are going. The transfer of knowledge and values forms a social foundation which we can build upon in order to ensure that the youth are the rightful future custodians of our dynamic and multi-cultural city,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Environmental and Spatial Planning, Councillor Johan van der Merwe.The Heritage Month outings covered heritage sites in areas such as Athlone, Somerset West and Mamre.
The Athlone heritage site tour in particular focused on the 1980s which was a time that produced a special cadre of youth and youth leaders called upon to engage in a struggle that required dedication, leadership, courage and commitment. The liberation struggle gave rise to many heritage sites throughout the city. Learners were taken to sites within the areas such as the Trojan Horse Memorial, the Anton Fransch site, the Coline Williams and Robert Waterwitch Memorial, the Ashley Kriel site and the Dulcie September Civic Centre.
‘The City hopes that the celebrations over the past month and today serve as a reminder that we are only as strong as the diversity of our people. This diversity is celebrated when we celebrate one another, and the differences that have brought us together,’ said Councillor Van der Merwe.
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