1965

On the 6 January, the Provincial Administration approved the establishment of the new coloured township (extension 2) on erf 376 on the other side of the railway tracks.

There is very little documentation available about the establishment of the new coloured township or the move of the coloured community from Oukloof to the new coloured settlement. The only confirmation that the move happened in September of 1965, comes from interviews conducted with the Ouklowers. There are no archive records or church minutes indicating how the forced removals took place. There are also no documents showing how the new housing scheme was developed but it is known, the houses were ready in phases and as they were built from the larger houses down to the smaller houses, coloured families were evicted and moved into the new houses.
The Village Management Board made a list and families were allocated houses according to the amount of children they had.

Some residents in Oukloof stayed on as long as they possibly could, fighting the move but in the end, they were all uprooted from their homes.

The coloured community was also told they would not be able to keep animals in the new settlement and were forced to sell their animals to the white farmers.

The new coloured township was named Esterhof after the Mr. Esterhuysen, the chair of the Village Management Board who was instrumental in its establishment.

Reference:
Surplus People’s Project land claim 1997
Interviews with Ouklowers