The District Six Working Committee has once again met with current and future land claimants ahead of a second-High Court appearance set to take place on the 26 February 2019.

In 2018, the Cape Town High Court ruled that the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform should speed up the restitution process and formulate a plan within three months.

Last year the Cape Town High Court heard that more than 20 years since the start of the restitution process more than one thousand District Six claimants are yet to receive their houses.

The District Six Working Committee Chairperson Shahied Ajam said a public meeting was held on Sunday where they met with the current and future claimants as their fight for restitution continues.

“The turnout we received was phenomenal, we had almost one thousand people come out to engage with us and it was an exciting and informative meeting,” he said.

Ajam said the number of claimants continues to grow with some not always opting to take a house as restitution.

“A lot of them will come back and a lot will also benefit economically and financially. There are those who will opt for monetary compensation. We know that government stands at 130 000. How they calculate that, we don’t know. We know the people are not going to accept that we would rather argue if one has a lot restoring their dignity, start from a million down and we stop and maybe R5 600 000 per family. Those are for the ones who did not wish to return to District 6,” said Ajam.

“We are trying to get as many people back to the district as possible, so currently we have 1000 people waiting and 2000 more lodging their claims between 2014 and 2016 and expect another 1000 to claim as from 2019,” he said.

He further adds that more than 4000 people were expecting to return to the area.

The purpose of the meeting was to explain the implications of a recent court ruling made in November  last year as well as to outline the next plan of action when the committee returns to court next month.