Cape Times - Irked District Six land claimants have threatened to forcibly remove three “foreign residents” from the area on Monday.
The foreigners, who are from Rwanda and rent property from a District Six land claim beneficiary, have experienced a number of problems since moving into the area two weeks ago.
“When they moved in I immediately started receiving calls from people telling me that I should not have allowed them in. People were saying the houses should only be for District Six land claimants,” said the owner of the property at 7E Reform Street.
The owner asked not to be named as he owned a business in the area and feared losing customers.
“My family was displaced from District Six during apartheid and we applied for restitution 30 years ago. I got the property and decided to rent it out. I contacted the land claims commission and they said I had every right to rent to whoever I want,” he said.
The beneficiary said his tenants had been verbally abused and last week they came home to find that their locks had been changed.
“The residents have put up posters saying ‘Foreign nationals not allowed’. Their power has also been cut. I mean these are educated university lecturers who always pay their rent. It’s really inhuman,” he said.
The threat to forcibly remove the Rwandans came after claimants expressed concern that the land claims process was flawed as 1 135 families still await compensation, despite a February 2014 deadline President Jacob Zuma had set.
District Six Working Committee chairperson Shahied Ajam said frustration was mounting and some residents were now taking their anger out on foreigners. “This is the result of frustration due to this flawed process,” he said.
“People are unhappy and they are unhappy because they want restitution. More than 60 000 people were forcibly removed from District Six. Why are they allowing foreigners to live in the area when people are still in pain?”
Provincial Land Claims Commissioner Michael Worsnip said there was no law preventing beneficiaries from renting out their homes.
“Landlords are entitled to rent out their homes. We can’t dictate to them who they can and can’t rent to,” he said. “The commission would ideally see the beneficiaries actually occupy what was allocated to them.”
Worsnip said land claimants were not allowed to sell their property for 10 years after being granted their claim.
Cape Times