Cape Town – Minister Thoko Didiza is mum on plans to redevelop District Six, as the Land Claims Court judgment looms.
The agriculture, land reform and rural development minister yesterday said it would be “presumptuous to outline her department’s plans for District Six at this stage”.
“I don’t think we need to talk about the budget at the moment. When I met with the stakeholders, it was a meet-and-greet but also to establish a process to work on it together.
“I think it will be presumptuous of us to speak on that. But we have broken the ice, we have met and we have promised to work together.”
She was speaking during a media briefing before presenting her department’s budget in Parliament yesterday.
Didiza met members of the District Six working committee last week to map a way forward to get closure for the people of District Six, who have been waiting over 20 years for restitution,
“It’s not about the budget only, it’s about what kind of redevelopment as well as what kind of commitments were made to those who lodged a claim in 2000 against the province and the City of Cape Town. In the discussion we will put all of this to them, and we urge that we should not prejudge the process,” she said
Didiza said during her budget vote speech that in the financial year in review, her department acquired 85000 hectares of land at a cost of R590million for the benefit of several of the poorest districts in the Free State, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.
The budget allocation for the land acquisition was R595m. Didiza has also promised to support 162 farms with a budget allocation of R1.3 billion.
She spoke extensively on restitution and said the target for claims for 2018/2019 was to settle 1151 restitution of land rights claims and finalise 991 claims. Only 502 land restitution claims were settled due to several challenges, she added.