The District Six Working Committee (D6WC) has announced a combined mass feedback meeting and high tea, to be held on Youth Day on the 16th June. The meeting will see the D6WC report back to claimants on developments of a mass meeting that took place on the 18th May, at the City Hall. That meeting saw the committee tackle the issue of ‘elections vs restitution’.

D6WC chairperson Shahied Ajam said the meeting would also explain and provide information to claimants regarding the forthcoming claims registration process. The high tea would be used as a means of saying thank you to the community for their support.

“With Ramadan fast approaching, we thought that we would have some form of social gathering,” he explained.  

Out of 500 tickets available for the event, half have so far been sold. Ajam was particularly critical over the fact that the tickets had not yet sold out, taking into account the committee had more than 1300 registered members, and that the event had been announced more than three weeks ago. He urged the community to come out and buy tickets, for what he called a critical feedback session in the restitution process.

According to Ajam, the D6WC would likely be the group that would represent most claimants in the forthcoming registration process. He also insisted the committee would not make the same mistakes as its predecessors, in regards to the restitution process.

He also reiterated the D6WC stance that they would be coming back for most of the land in the District Six area, which he said needed to be given back to the people, regardless of whose ownership the land was in.

“Whether it has been sold to individuals or corporate companies, most of that land must either be sold back to government who must give it back to the people, or it must be given back to the people themselves,” he said.

The dual high tea and feedback meeting will be taking place on the 16th June, at the Blackpool Sports Complex in Salt River. The event will run from between 12pm and 4pm. For more information contact Shahied Ajam at 076 665 6224, or the D6WC officer number at 021 801 8437. VOC (Mubeen Banderker)