Mabuza to conduct oversight visit to District Six Development Project on Tuesday

Deputy President David Mabuza is scheduled to undertake an oversight visit to the District Six Development Project on Tuesday morning.

This is in his capacity as the Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Land Reform and Agriculture. Over 60 000 families were forcibly removed from the area when the apartheid government declared District Six a whites only area in 1966.

Government has built homes so that some of the families can return to the area.

It has taken many years of negotiations between all three spheres of government and the representatives of the claimants and now it appears some former residents will finally be able able to return.

The Department of Land Reform and Agriculture said last year that it had allocated around one coma four billion rand for the building of houses.

Mabuza and members of the the IMC will go on a walk about in the area to inspect progress and interact with the the public.

There have been delays in resettling the people because of disagreements between the City of Cape Town and National government regarding the quality of the homes.

In June last year, 108 claimants returned to District Six in the Cape Town City. One of the beneficiaries for the Phase Three development, 100-year-old Shariefa Khan celebrated her birthday in April 2021.

She is one of the 60 000 people who were forcibly removed by the apartheid government as the suburb was declared a Whites’ only area, 55 years ago.

Khan lives with her daughter, Sumaya Mukuddem, in Connaught Estate in Elsies River, but the candle burning for District Six could never be extinguished.

108 claimants prepare to return to District Six: