The people evicted from District Six 51 years ago want justice to be delivered to them now, or government will have to face the consequences of mass mobilisation.
The national restitution process has largely been a failure, with a few exceptions, and the lack of political will in relation to the restitution process for the people of District 6 particularly, over the last 17 years indeed reflects badly on the record of democratic South Africa.
We need to stop romanticising about the District 6 of the past and start looking to the future. How long must the people still suffer before government officials finally make up their minds to restore their (the people’s) sense of security and dignity? Another 100 years?
The people need to heal. The rule of law demands it. The City of Cape Town released 42 of the original 110 hectares for restitution purposes 17 years ago and to date, those parties entrusted to finish the housing project in 2005 and 2010 have not been held to account. That also needs to happen now.
The District 6 Working Committee (D6WC) is an organisation which was founded by the people, for the people and that’s undertaken the task of seeking alliances that reflect consistently with people's priorities in respect of their basic human rights. In anticipation of the new call to action, the Directors of the D6WC have assembled a powerful team of lawyers to take legal steps against the minister of Rural Development and Land Reform if their demands are not dealt with expeditiously. The team includes senior counsel advocate Geoff Budlender, advocate Naefa Khan and the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Inc, who, in light of the plight of the people of District Six, are offering their services pro bono.
When they meet tomorrow at the Blackpool Hall (10am) in Salt River, a strategic plan of action will be tabled by their legal representatives, which includes: compelling the minister of Rural Development and Land Reform to immediately make public the conceptual and architectural plans for the housing development planned on the entire 42ha of land which has been designated for restitution purposes, or face court action; compelling the minister to complete the housing development for all claimants on the 42ha by, the latest, December 2019, or face court action; compelling the minister to grant just and equitable monetary compensation (redress) to claimants not wishing to return to District 6, or face court action; obtaining title deeds for all restitution beneficiaries presently living in District 6 since the first phase development began many years ago.
Despite all the promises over the years, fewer than 50% of claims lodged have been settled. Considering the slow pace in which restitution was implemented in District 6 since 1998, claimants say it will take forever before justice comes to them, and that’s why they decided to push the matter to the Land Claims Court, alternatively the Constitutional Court.
Most of the claimants are elderly and many have died without their fervent wish to go back to the city having been met.
The claimants, united under the banner of the D6WC, include many from 1995 and another 1 500 claimants from 2014 who, in terms of Section 2 of the 2014 Amended Restitution of Land Rights Act, were recognised as legitimate claimants that year. Most of these claimants are paid-up members of D6WC, set up to champion their cause.
After four years of meeting several times a year to build a united front, they are tired of waiting and tired of empty promises. They live, dispersed by apartheid, over a wide area throughout the Cape Flats, but they have kept their ties and identity with their roots in District 6. Those frustrated and impatient are, in part, the children of those evicted in 1966 and the following years. They want an outcome for their parents’ sake as much as for their own sake. The younger generation identifies with District Six as strongly as their parents do and are regular participants in the members meetings.
To add substance to their litigation action, a motion is also to be tabled tomorrowthat calls for public demonstrations until the minister, Gugile Nkwinti, acts and urgently settles all outstanding claims as soon as possible.
The motion seeks a unanimous resolution by its more than 2 000 members to apply for permission to demonstrate outside Parliament and in District 6 as often as may be needed to inject urgency into what they perceive as sloth on the part of the responsible ministry.
On each occasion that they plan to demonstrate, the resolution states, they will hand in a letter to the minister demanding that he take swift action to implement the new improved plan originally designed by architects in 2005.