One hundred-and-eight claimants have been waiting anxiously to hear when they'll be receiving their new homes.
Shariefa Khan (100) is one of 108 people who were due to move into their new homes this month. However, construction hit a snag, which the Land Affairs Department has attributed to the inclement weather in Cape Town.
All of them were forcibly removed from their homes when the area was declared a 'whites only' area under the Apartheid Group Areas Act.
The order prevents any persons from entering or occupying the land, erecting or completing structures. The order further prohibits anyone from intimidating, threatening, harassing or assaulting or in any way interfering with the work of officials, councillors and law enforcement.
Makeshift shelters have been popping up on a piece of land earmarked for development.
Mr and Mrs Khan lived with their six children in the Bailey Flats in Hanover Street, close to the Avalon Bioscope and owned the Bombay Café, also known as Dout’s Café, which was famous for its Indian and Cape Malay cuisine.
The Department of Land Reform said that it had now completed its administrative process.
Hundreds of families who have been on the waiting list for more than 30 years have been told they will move into their new homes at the end of April.
This comes after the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development submitted its quarterly plan to the committee.
This comes after plans to return 108 claimants were delayed by another month.
The District Six working committee on Monday said government informed them that the handing over of the homes would now be at the end of May and not this month as previously planned.
After one of the most callous dispossessions of apartheid, more than 100 District Six claimants will soon be able to return to the place they once called home.
With the news that the future of the District Six Museum is in peril, Judith February says that within our deeply divided and scarred society, it’s imperative to ask what matters to us.
The city is starting a database for people who want to be part of the rebuilding process that would be open to claimants, residents, civic, and NPOs and anyone else with an interest in the project.
Philander was apprehended on Saturday after he took to social media where he alleged that a young girl was living with a paedophile in a District Six Community Centre.
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille was addressing claimants at a commemoration of the District Six forced removals at the Castle of Good Hope at the weekend.
Plato says the relocation will be done in a smooth and orderly manner.
District Six residents who were forcibly removed from their homes under the then Group Areas Act have come to hear plans to move them back to the area.
