Occupying Heritage: From a Leprosy Hospital to an Informal Settlement and Beyond

This paper looks at the informal settlement known as Westfort, in the western outskirts of Pretoria, South Africa. Daspoort Hospital was built on the southern side of Daspoortrand ridge in the 1880s for treatment of smallpox. In 1902 West Fort hospital was added and the complex gradually developed into a leprosarium and a psychiatric institution. Since the hospital’s closure, some 5000 individuals have occupied the buildings informally while the municipality has identified Westfort as a site for the development of mixed income housing. This paper investigates our engagement with the site of Westfort and its residents in the face of the encroaching development. We also attempt to problematize the pervasive sentiment that the residents should be removed from the site. We relate actions of residents that have saved crucial heritage aspects of the site, and suggest that city and heritage officials could better protect this site with the help of the current community.