District Six residents’ never-ending disputes
Elderly community struggling for compensation in legal battles
FUMING elderly residents of District Six are gearing up for a legal battle with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform because they are still waiting for the resolution of their claims for land or houses.
On Saturday, residents gathered at Pontact Street where they met with a legal adviser to vent their frustration. Many of these residents are claimants, or their parents were claimants. “We had 10 properties and they took four erven and only compensated us for two . We are still waiting for them to compensate us for the rest. When we signed our deed of sale, they wanted us to sign off all of it,” resident Anwar Ali said. He said the department deliberately wanted to rob him.
Another resident, Mohammed Khan, is still waiting to be compensated. “I am a property owner and I stay in a flat. I am still waiting to be compensated. I have phoned and sent letters asking when I will be compensated,” Khan said. Another resident complained about the deplorable conditions they live in. Mymoina Kreysler currently lives in Roger Street in Zonnebloem. She is also a property owner, waiting to be compensated.
“If it rains, it rains more in than outside. There is no alignment of doors or windows and everything comes in. I have been going back and forth with City council because no one has been fixing my place,” Kreysler said.
It’s been an ongoing struggle for the residents of District Six who have asked post-1996 property owners in the area either to sell their land back to the state for restitution purposes or to pay some of the profits from their businesses to the dispossessed. The District Six Working Committee is questioning the role of the District Six Beneficiary Trust. “The trust today has not opened its books, has not shown us anything, It’s time for social cohesion. This fiasco of District Six must come to an end. The only way we can move on is if we question the trust. Why are they quiet?” chairperson Shahied Ajam said.
A court battle between the District Six Working Committee and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is looming after the committee filed a court application against the department’s failure to provide restitution to District Six claimants since 1998. The application was lodged in April at the Land Claims court in Randburg, Joburg. The committee is representing 969 claimants and 22 respondents are listed; 70 of the claimants are elderly, with the oldest already in her nineties.
A lawyer present at the meeting, Tim Dunn, said it’s evident there is clear misinformation on the future of District Six. “It appears there has been an exploitation of people’s desperation and exploitation of people’s ignorance,” Dunn said.
He said the core problem was that the department had allowed this to happen. “The act is very clear on who should drive this process, which is the Commission of Land Reform and the department. Now you have interference of trusts and reference groups, all these structures, but the real structure is the commission, in terms of the act.”