Hideous Stories in Roeland Street
By Oyisa George
Vigilietti
Motors building before it was Amazon web service. Credits: Oyisa George
Roeland Street is the main artery of the exciting east
district of Cape Town. Roeland Street has full of tragic stories that have left
people stuttering. Taking it back to the year 2014, a drunk driver crashed into
a car dealership Viglietti Motors, this dealership was not only dealing with
any cars but Italian cars Ferrari. Unfortunately on this very night, a life was
lost a 43-year-old homeless man was crushed by the car. He was one of the four
people that were sleeping outside this dealership as their shelter. The driver
was charged with culpable homicide. The home of the re-owned Italian car
Ferrari was turned into a scene of the tragedy in Roeland Street. The Viglietti
Motors was situated next to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
campus in Roeland Street for many years before it was bulldozed in 2016.
The current building (Amazon web service) consists of 6
parking levels and 7 floors of commercial space which is anticipated to be
occupied by the internet giant Amazon.
Another tragedy did take place in Roeland Street in the year 2013. The Kimberly hotel was one of the popular hangout spots for Capetonians, with a jukebox and bar downstairs. Kimberly hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Cape Town it is situated on Roeland Street. A hideous thing did take place in this place where a University of Cape Town (UCT) student Rosa Carlye- Mitchell in 2013 was celebrating her 21st birthday with her friends and family originally she was from Durban. She accidentally fell to death. The student sat on the rail of the first-floor balcony before she fell to death.
What is so sad about all this is that the student’s
father broke his ribs before this whole incident happened and they had to fly
across an ocean to get an operation regarding his ribs. The day the student was
celebrating her birthday and took her last breath her parents were stuck in
Italy.
Earlier this year our national parliament got burnt
down. A major fire at the South African parliament caused extensive damage. A man
in his 50s was a suspect in initiating the fire and he was then arrested in connection
with the old parliament building. The firefighters believed that the situation
was being handled well, unfortunately later the flames spread to the current
parliament building.
Firefighters were really struggling to bring the fire
under control and that two aircraft had to be brought in. some parliament
members believe that this fire that was initiated was a deliberate attack on
South Africa’s seat of democracy. It appears that the private securities that
are usually used by parliament and in addition the police were not paid
overtime and they did not show up at work. Luckily nobody was injured since
this took place when everyone was on holiday.
An
image of an old Roeland Street prison. Credits: Oyisa George
The Roeland Street prison was defined as a horror
place. Many prisoners were being killed in this prison. When execution would
take place a crowd of people would wait outside and wait for the black flag
which symbolizes that a prisoner has died. During the influenza epidemic, the
prison had its share of deaths. It appears 10 percent died during this period. It
shows that the prisoners did not get good enough treatment.
It is currently known as the Western Cape Archives and
records service. It was named the Roeland Street prison and also it was known by
the majority by Cape Town’s own black hole. Roeland Street is one strange
street with churches and prisons in one street but then that is how it is unique.
