It may have been a wait spanning decades, but all that was forgotten when the Aziz family were finally returned their land on Thursday. Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille handed over a title deed for erf 604 in Cotton Lane, Simons Town to the Aziz family in a special ceremony. After being forcefully removed from their land in Simons Town during the Apartheid group areas act, the Aziz family fought through tears to express their appreciation to the City for returning their land.

The City transferred the land, valued at R1,5million, at no cost, in order to finalise the Aziz family’s land claim. The family lodged their claim in 1996.

The Mayor, city officials, family members and journalists made the trek uphill to the erf of the Aziz family, overlooking the beautiful coast. There, De Lille handed over the title deeds.

“As part of the City’s program of redress and reconciliation, handover is proof of how serious we take that commitment. In 1996 when this claim was lodged, it had to go through an extremely long process.”

The regional lands commission had to do a verification of the family tree, and finally, it was found that this land was transferred to the City of Cape Town.

“My immediate instruction was that this land does not belong to the City and must be given back to its rightful owners,” De Lille said.

A young member of the family, Muhammed Aziz Aziz, speaking on behalf of his father, said it was through perseverance that the family managed to make it through the tough time of their removal. However, it was his great-grandfather, Muhammed Zain Aziz who had already laid the foundation for the home to built on the property before they were removed by the Group Areas Act.

“We now need to ascertain how we as a family plan to move forward. We thank everyone involved in this. We had ups and downs through this entire process but ultimately thank the Almighty for getting us through,” Aziz said.

While the family were moved by the return of their land, they said building a structure on the property will have to wait as it will be costly.

“I want to commend and say a special thanks to the Aziz family for their patience to go through all the procedures of government which resulted in us being here.” De Lille concluded. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)