The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti, is set to host a feedback meeting with District Six claimants this coming weekend. The meeting, which is directed at those who have issued claims before the first cut off date on 31st December 1998, will address the progress made in the current phase of rebuilding in District Six.

The chief director for Land Resitution, Michael Worsnip, said the feedback meeting was one of several to have taken place in recent months, aimed at giving claimants the opportunity to speak with the minister himself, and relay their own concerns.

The meeting is expected to be attended by Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille, as well as City of Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille.

“Those are the three spheres of government that have been working with each other, to ensure the rebuild of District Six takes place in a coordinated kind of way,” said Worsnip.

He added the respective spheres of government would have had a task team meeting before the feedback session, discussing the whole process of the District Six rebuild. The outcomes of that meeting would be relayed to the claimants.

Entrance to the meeting will only be granted for accredited claimants who have lodged claims before the 1998 cut off date. Worsnip noted that all the claimants would have been contacted by the department to pre-register for the meeting.

“They must be legitimate claimants from the pre-1998 period. In other words they must have a claim number, and they must either be the originally dispossessed individual, or representatives of that originally dispossessed individual,” he said.

The meeting will however not be open to any claimants from the new process, or for the District Six representative bodies.

The meeting is scheduled to take place on the grounds of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), this coming Saturday. It will run from 11am onwards. All attendees are expected to bring along their relevant ID documents.

For more information you can contact the department on 021 409 0300. VOC (Mubeen Banderker)