RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR DISTRICT SIX CLAIMANTS NOW

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District Six Restitution Petition 

This petition is addressed to Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa; Mr Mzwanele Nyhontso, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform; The Commission for Rural Development and Land Reform and The City of Cape Town. It is made in support of all District Six claimants for whom Apartheid has not ended and remains forcibly removed from their land, thirty-one years after the first democratic elections.   

A brief history

District Six was a vibrant, racially mixed residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. It was central to the cultural, political and social history of Cape Town and home to some of the country's oldest sports clubs. It was also home to major political resistance organisations. In 1867, District Six was the sixth municipal district of Cape Town. The area was home to freed slaves, merchants, artisans, laborers and immigrants. 

As is widely known, this community was subjected to brutal treatment by the apartheid regime and forcibly removed, with District Six destroyed. The apartheid regime declared District Six a "whites only" area in 1966 and by 1982 more than 60,000 people were forcibly removed from the area, with their homes bulldozed and their lives destroyed. 

Post-1994 developments

By the time of the April 1994 elections only 42 hectares of the 150 hectares that District Six originally consisted of were left. 2,760 claims were subsequently lodged in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994 (Act 22 of 1994).  Out of these 1,449 received financial compensation and 1,201 opted to assert and exercise their right to return to a home in District Six.  Unfortunately, 110 claims were dismissed for non-compliance.    

What followed is a long and painful history of broken undertakings and bitter disappointment for the majority of the 1,201 claimants. To date only 247 claimants have been allocated homes. Due to the long delay, more claimants have opted for financial compensation, resulting in only 918 claimants currently awaiting allocation of homes.  

Homes were allocated in the following stages:

*2008              24 claimants received homes.

*2013              115 claimants received homes.

*2022              108 claimants received homes.

This is despite a Land Claims Court Order No LCC54/2018, heard 26 November 2018 and delivered 20 March 2019 by The Honourable Judge J Kollapen, for the Department to provide and hand over housing units for verified claimants of District Six. The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform was also ordered by the Court to formulate a development plan within three months.

The Court declared that the failure of The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights and The Government of the Republic of South Africa to provide restitution to District Six claimants constitutes a violation of the rights of those claimants. It also constituted a breach of the obligations of those parties in terms of section 7(2), Section 25(7) and section 237 of the Constitution and in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights.

Due to the Minister’s failure to deliver the plan, she was summonsed back to Court. The Land Claims Court in August 2019 issued a declaratory order to the effect that the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform failed to comply with the court order of 26 November 2018 and that the Minister was grossly unreasonable in the discharge of her duties.  In the same order the Registrar was directed to bring this judgement to the attention of the Deputy President of South Africa.

What occurred thereafter has been particularly painful for the claimants and other concerned people.  

However, in 2021 the Claimants were presented with a development plan which they approved.

There were two further developments.

At a key event hosted by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) on 6 May 2021, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “we will finally resolve the District Six matter” and gave his assurance that claimants would be returned home. He was called upon by the MJC to make this a top priority.  

In another development, the Deputy President David Mabuza, along with Mcebisi Skwatsha, the then Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, and the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Thoko Didiza, conducted a site visit to the District Six area in March 2022. In a meeting with claimants, the Deputy President undertook that housing units for claimants would be completed within three years. This was already another delay considering the Court Ruling that claimants had to be restituted in the shortest possible time, as per section 237 of the Constitution of South Africa.

In spite of this process and other activities involving the claimants, no further building of units has happened to date. 

The elderly are dying without restitution and the restoration of their dignity.

Our demands:

1.      Fair, just and equitable restitution NOW for all claimants, as per                     Section 6(2)(d) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 and               involving the simultaneous development of housing units, as per the             approved plan.

2.      A meeting within one month of receipt of this petition with:

*The Minister Nyhontso, Rural Development and Land Reform.

*The Commissioner of Rural Development and Land Reform

*The City of Cape Town.

*The Premier of the Province of Western Cape.

*The President and Government of the Republic of South Africa. 

       To present us with the following:

                        *Reason for the delays.

                        *Elimination of valid delays within specified timeframes.

                        *When each claimant will be restituted.

                        *A table listing where each claimant is on the claimant list.

3.      The President to engage Treasury as a matter of urgency now, should there be fiscal constraints.

Considering the numerous delays and lengthy time that has already passed, fiscal constraints should under no circumstances be a reason for further delays.

Signed:  

  1. The District Six Concerned Claimants Association.       

  2. The District Six Civic

  3. The District Six Working Committee   

  4. The District Six Neighbourhood Watch