About Princess Vlei

“Princess Vlei has always been a place …where the bird life with its joyful sounds soothes the sometimes angry inner soul.”
– Phillip Bam

"Our intention is to dignify the Princess and in so doing restore dignity to the people of this area who have historically been marginalised.”
– Kelvin Cochrane

The Greater Princess Vlei Conservation Area is the gateway to a wetland system that runs through Grassy Park, Lotus River and Strandfontein.

The Vlei was named after a Khoe Princess, who, according to local legend, was abducted by Portuguese sailors while bathing in its waters. Under apartheid, it was one of the few natural areas that people of colour could visit, and it became a meeting place for communities traumatised and scattered by forced removals to bleak townships on the Cape Flats. Though loved by the people, the Vlei was severely neglected by the authorities which allocated most resources to areas reserved for whites. The site became further degraded when Prince George Drive was widened with no regard for conserving the ecology.

In 2010, local residents and concerned citizens began a campaign to save Princess Vlei from commercial development. Local fynbos enthusiast, Kelvin Cochrane, initiated a project called Dressing the Princess, which aimed to restore the natural vegetation on the site. Community members and school learners planted at the vlei in protest against the proposed mall.

Since the community victory, the Forum has continued this process and has been rolling out a five-year plan to restore 20% of the site with Dune Strandveld, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, and Cape Freshwater Lowlands vegetation on site. This represents one of the biggest community-led restoration plans in the Cape Floristic region.

In 2020, the GPVCA was declared a Provincial Heritage Site, providing another layer of protection to the space.

What makes Princess Vlei Special?

The legend of the Princess links the vlei to Cape Town’s earliest inhabitants: the Khoe and the San. These communities were enslaved, displaced, and hunted down by the colonial invaders. The Vlei is an important site for celebrating and memorialising this Khoe heritage and history.
When people of colour were forcibly removed to the Cape Flats by Apartheid laws, this was one of the few natural places they could come to relax. Since people were denied access to the beaches, Princess Vlei become known as “Claremont Beach”.
The Vlei is a repository of collective memory and identity - multiple generations have memories of defying parents to swim in the waters, teaching their one children to fish, and growing old watching the pelicans skim over the water to land. It
It has long been used for water immersion Baptism. Church groups come every Sunday from Nyanga, Gugulethu, Philippi….At Easter, they come from as far afield as Gauteng.
Located between formerly “coloured” and white areas, the vlei is well placed o build community, heal historical divisions and bring people together.
The Vlei provides a valuable public space to communities facing socio-economic challenges in highly urbanised environments.
It is a space to reconnect urbanised communities with nature, and an outdoor classroom where youngsters can experience and develop an appreciation of and love for nature.
The GPVCA provides a habitat for endemic and endangered species, nurtures biodiversity and purifies water before it flows to the sea.

"She cries more than just a river, she cries more than just a lake...
Our Princess of the Vlei, will we her again forsake?"
Listen to Emile Jansen and Mixed Mense's song about Princess Vlei.

Taking away the Princess will be like taking away a mother from a child, because as mother nature Princess Vlei is a part of that and as she has looked after us we should take it upon ourselves to look after her - Daniel Hector, Lotus High

On Saturday afternoons we would walk down to the Vlei and I would put in a line for each child and they would catch beautiful carp.... My children still remember these days... This Vlei belongs to our people. Mr Edward Johnson (84).