District Six Claimants Wonder if They Will Be Alive by the Time Government Redevelops the Historic Site

Rosaline Isaacs, 77, last heard about her claim three years ago when the Land Claims Commission sent her a letter thanking her for her patience.

• Of 1,165 claimants from 1998 who chose to be included in the District Six redevelopment, only 247 families have received homes.
• Government set a deadline of November 2028 to complete construction but still needs to secure the budget.
• A further 749 “new order” claimants, who submitted claims between 2014 and 2016, cannot have their claims considered because the Constitutional Court has prohibited the government from processing new claims until existing claims are settled.

While successful claimants wait for the government to secure funding to complete the long-awaited redevelopment of District Six, more than 700 further claimants might not live to see their rights restored.

2,760 people who lodged claims for District Six before the initial 1998 deadline have either been compensated financially, resettled in the area, or promised new houses in the area. When a new application window opened between 2014 and 2016, another 749 people submitted claims.

But because the government has failed to resolve the country’s existing land claims (as of July 2024, there were still 80,000), the Constitutional Court has prohibited it from even considering “new order” claims until all outstanding claims are settled.

Rosaline Isaacs, who turns 78 in January, is one of the “new order” District Six claimants. She still remembers how people’s homes and businesses were demolished around her in District Six. But she has fond memories of the area where she grew up before the demolitions. Isaacs and her family had managed to hold out until 1980 before they were forcibly removed to Mitchell’s Plain.

She recalls she used to be able to walk to her church at St Stephen’s in Bree Street.

“We were very central. We had swimming baths. On Sundays, they used to have a cinema. My brother was in the scouts. We had a lot of opportunities and we were free. We could walk wherever we wanted.”

“When we came here [to Mitchell’s Plain], it was just sand,” she said.

She last heard about her claim three years ago when the Land Claims Commission sent her a letter thanking her for her patience.

Decades-long process

Following the establishment of democracy in 1994, 42 hectares of land were set aside for restitution in District Six, with 2,760 claims lodged within a 1998 deadline. Of these, 1,485 claimants opted for financial compensation, while 1,165 chose to be included in the redevelopment.

To date, only 247 housing units have been built and handed over to former District Six residents: 24 homes in 2008, 115 in 2013, and 108 in 2022. There are 918 families still waiting. Only 20% of the project has been completed. Claimants may still opt for financial compensation.

The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development set a deadline of November 2028 to complete the construction of the remaining houses, according to a report submitted to Parliament earlier this year.

A court in November 2018 ordered the state to formulate a plan to house the remaining 954 restitution beneficiaries of District Six.

In line with the order, the department developed a “master plan” in consultation with claimants and other stakeholders. The plan provides for 954 homes spread over eight portions of District 6 land, along with the provision of all basic services, roads, amenities and public spaces. This was after the District Six Working Committee took the government to court.

Raising the funds

But the government needs at least R2.2-billion to complete the redevelopment. In response to a question in Parliament earlier this month, Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso said the department had made R684-million available through a grant from the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights.

“To date no other entity has made any fiscal contribution towards the redevelopment,” the minister said.

“I wish to reaffirm that completing restitution in District Six is both a legal obligation and a moral commitment.”

“Funding required for the construction implementation of the Court Plan will have to be sourced in partnership with other stakeholders, including the City of Cape Town, the Department of Human Settlements and National Treasury.”

He said agreements on funding will be taken forward at the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Land Reform for ratification, “so that construction can commence imminently on the sites that are now shovel-ready”, he said.

But “new order” claimants, like Isaacs, remain in the dark on whether their claims will ever be realised. Her three siblings have already passed away.

“I don’t know if I’m still gonna be alive by that time, but hopefully the next generation will benefit,” she said.

Petition

In May, a petition, signed by more than 400 people, called for restorative justice for District Six land claimants. It said that the pace of the redevelopment is “still slow despite damning judgments and court orders”.

Nazeem Sydow, co-director of the District Six Working Committee, a non-profit organisation which works mostly with new order claimants, said his family was moved out of District Six in 1967, a year after the Group Areas Act was implemented by the apartheid government. He was a teenager at the time.

“We know it’s taken 30 years. We know the government doesn’t have the money. I want to see them starting the process of looking after all the new order claimants,” said Sydow.

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