Page 148 - Bulletin 21

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Fisher and Indilla Junior in 1940. The work was carried out by Doud Slamdien the cartage

contractor from Rosmead Road. In 1944 the land was transferred to the Council.

On the subject of graveyards, it is known from various accounts that prior to the closure of all

informal graveyards and the opening of Muizenberg Cemetery in 1903, people were buried
on the slopes above where the Flats are now. The records for St James Catholic Church kept

at Simon’s Town list 46 burials between 1896 and 1903 – the majority are babies and very

young children. The register notes ‘Community Cemetery now Fishermen’s Flats’ and that
they too were re-interred at Muizenberg. Strangely, there is no mention of this in any of the

files on the Slums Act and the building of the Fishermen’s Flats.

The Fishermen’s Union Cottages

Land ownership was complex but Council’s ‘Slums Plan’ of 1937 assists in locating erven

and properties. (Fig. 4.33.) The ‘Fishermen’s Union’ houses were built on two erven (89937

& 89938) deducted from George Powell’s original 1892 purchase. They were bought by Jan
van Blerk in 1893. Jacoba van Blerk owned the land in 1898 when plans for 8 ‘Fishermen’s

Cottages’ were passed. (Fig. 4.34.) The eventual two buildings may have been completed by
the next owner Carel Andries van der Merwe (1900) who sold on to the Russian Jews Selig

Cohen and Isaac Visav. In 1920 Dora Cohn sold both buildings and land to The False Bay
Fishermen’s Union. Originally known as the Kalk Bay Fishermen’s Union this body had been

around since at least 1908 when a petition shows average earnings of members was 5/- per

day and Union subscriptions were 6d per week. The Union’s original purpose was to provide
a platform to take up the interests of fishermen in an attempt to get better prices for the fish

they worked so hard to bring ashore.

In 1919 the Secretary, Nicholas Menigo, wrote to the Mayor and Councillors pointing out the

desperate shortage of housing for fishing families made much worse by recent demolitions of

old buildings – among them the fishermen’s accommodation demolished at the Point for
Harbour Development. He said that the Union had bought two plots where 8 to 10 houses

could be built, but that financial help was needed to build. Councillor Dr. A Abdurahman and