District Six (Afrikaans Distrik Ses) is the name of a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. It is best known for the forced removal of over 60,000 of its inhabitants during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.
Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, the African National Congress has recognized the older claims of former residents to the area, and pledged to support rebuilding.
By 2003 work had started on the first new buildings - 24 houses that will belong to residents over 80 years old. On 11 February 2004, exactly 38 years after being rezoned by the government, former president Nelson Mandela handed the keys to the first returning residents, Ebrahim Murat (87) and Dan Ndzabela (82). About 4 000 families are scheduled to return over the next three years.
With his short novel "A Walk in the Night" (1962) the well-known Capetonian journalist and writer Alex La Guma gave District Six a place in literature.
Richard Rive wrote a highly-acclaimed novel called "Buckingham Palace, District Six", which chronicles the lives of a community before and during the removals. This book has also been adapted into successful theatre productions which toured South Africa.
In 1986, "District Six - The Musical" by David Kramer and Taliep Petersen told the story of District Six in a popular musical which also toured internationally.
