Former residents who were evicted from District Six during the apartheid Group Areas Act will gather for a meeting in Salt River on Saturday to discuss the shortcomings of land restitution. The meeting is being organised by the District Six Working Committee (D6WC), an organisation formed to assist late claimants, or those who had not lodged land claims by the end of the first window period in 1998. D6WC chairperson Shahied Ajam said the focal point for the agenda will be the failure of the restitution process.

“We will look at how many people will get in [be restituted], who has not gotten in and what about late claimants. What will happen to these people? Why couldn’t they accommodate all the people at the same time,” says Ajam.

The committee will also address the issue of how land claim officials deal with the claimants at the office in Mowbray.

“When we approach officials dealing with the applications and administration they are unhelpful and disrespectful. There is a tremendous amount of miscommunication and the manner in which they deal with the people is unacceptable,” says Ajam.

The committee will also discuss land ownership by the City of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The meeting will be held on Saturday 14 March 2015 between 10:00am and 13:00pm at Blackpool Sports Complex in Shelley Street, Salt River. VOC