COMMUNITY HOUSE

COMMUNITY HOUSE is a unique and historic site of living heritage situated in Salt River, Cape Town. Community House has been known as a site of activism from around the mid-80s which shaped and continues to shape the socio-political landscape of its surrounding communities.

The Community House building house NGOs and Trade Unions as well as labor and community history museum centered on Trade Union Library and its archive. It currently presents 24 organisations that focus on labor research, popular education, gender advocacy, HIV/AIDS education, environmental issues, youth development, media production and union organisation. 

HISTORY

  In the mid-1980s, anti-apartheid trade unions and civic and service organisations began searching for a new headquarters for their resistance campaign. The Western Province Council of Churches and an NGO the Social Change Assistance Trust met this need. They purchased a dilapidated auto-workshop in Salt River, an area known for its textile and light metal factories and which marks the origins pf industrial unions in the province. 

The site was declared a provincial heritage site in 2010.

Community House is a centre that has preserved and commemorated the memory of many anti-apartheid activists who demonstrated selfless dedication to the struggle for the liberation of the South African people. Some of these heroes played a role in the revival of trade unions while others left the country for military training while others were forced into exile. All those commemorated were detained by apartheid’s security police and all with the exception of one were murdered by the apartheid state.

CONTACT US

Phone:  021 447 7319

Email:   info@communityhouse.org.za

Done By 

Jasmine Mazwi