By: Aneeqa du Plessis

After several years, District Six claimants have at long last received the keys to their homes as part of the land restitution process.

Speaking on VOC’s Breakfast show on Tuesday morning, Chairperson of the District Six Working Committee Zahra Nordien explained there are no longer any stumbling blocks and claimants have been afforded the opportunity to move back.

“There is no hold-up, government has seen to all the safety issues and claimants have moved into their apartments. Although there are a few apartments that are still standing empty but those are family disputes,” explained Nordien.

Infighting between families has caused delays for certain members.

“The unit was issued to the claimant but because the children are unhappy with who is going to move in when their parents pass away it causes a deadlock and now you have vacant apartments, but we also see many apartments have been rented out by claimants,” said Nordien.

She further said government has kept them abreast of happenings after a court order was put to them.

“Every three months the D6 Working Committee gets a court report that stipulates how far government is with restitution process and we do know they are on par with the next few phases,” said Nordien.

According to Nordien, Phase 4 will consist of 171 units. There is still a balance of 975 claimants and by 2025 all claimants will be housed.“The due date for completion was 2023 but because of the Covid-19 pandemic everything was put on hold so we have extended the date to 2025,” added Nordien.

Plaintiffs were dumped on the Cape Flats after the apartheid regime moved them shortly after it introduced the Group Areas Act.

However, several claimants have sadly passed on since then, including the oldest, 100-year-old Shariefa Khan as well as the founder of the D6 Working Committee, Shaheed Ajam.

Nordien said the restitution land cannot be privatized since it belongs to the people that were forcibly removed.

VOC