DA PLAYING A DANGEROUS GAME ON DISTRICT SIX LAND DISPUTE
THE standing committee on human settlements in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, whose primary task is to hold the provincial government accountable, has taken an extraordinary step to be an extension of the executive, taking the bizarre and unconstitutional step of lying and making baseless claims on behalf of the provincial executive on the matter of District Six.
The department honoured an invitation from the legislature’s standing committee on human settlements on August 21, 2018, and duly discharged this duty in front of the committee with great clarity on where the process is and challenges ahead.
The national department left the committee with an understanding that both the national and provincial governments would meet and provide further details to the standing committee at the end of September on the remaining questions of restitution.
The national government was therefore shocked when the standing committee released a statement on the outcomes of the meeting with commitments that the department is said to have made to the provincial government.
Firstly, if such commitments were made, they would be made to the provincial government first before they are disclosed to the committee.
The national government can’t make commitments to the standing committee about the provincial government that it did not make to the provincial government. Were such commitments made, they AT LEAST 10% of the houses have been built on District Six land and the rest has been stalled because of new claimants disputing the original list, the writer says. |
African News Agency (ANA) would be communicated by the provincial and national government first, not the standing committee.
It is clear that the standing committee does not see itself as a neutral player on behalf of the people, but sees itself as an extension of the executive. By releasing that misleading and misguided statement, we are exactly where the steering government wanted us, a state of confusion where it seems the District Six community is caught up in political battles between a DA-run province and an ANC-run national government.
There is no such thing. While this is the DA’s modus operandi to escape responsibility, this time they are playing a dangerous game. Here are the facts:
The original residents of District Six are where they are today because of forced removals, a decision which the DA, as part of the apartheid Parliament, was party to. We would not be having the difficulty we are having today if the residents of District Six were still occupying their rightful place.
This land remains occupied by people who are not the original owners, but an imposition of the old government.
Land restitution, as part of national government's policy to correct the mistakes, not of its own making, became a difficult but
zzzWrite to arglet@inl.co.za. Facebook: Cape Argus; Twitter: @TheCapeArgus. Letters must contain full names, addresses and contact details (not for publication). necessary policy. It is now a known fact that this policy has not yielded the desired results because it is an expensive and unaffordable policy.
The National Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has made it clear that there were two sets of claimants for the original owners of the District Six land; the half who took monetary settlements and the other half who decided to settle for housing development and resettlement.
At least 10% of the houses have been built and the rest has been stalled because of new claimants disputing the original list. Since then, there have been four groupings all claiming to be the rightful claimants. This has resulted in court battles and long delays. The result of these delays is that the project has since gone into millions. It is estimated that today it would cost over R1million to settle each family.
Every political hot-button issue proves daily that the DA is too politically immature. When the DA provincial government can’t resolve matters, whether it’s human settlements or crime, they conveniently forget their constitutional mandates as a provincial government and cede all responsibility to the national government. Now the committees of the provincial legislature are in on it. The national department must engage in imbizos with all the claimants in a straightforward and truthful manner about challenges and time frames to meet the housing demands of the remaining claimants.
zzYonela Diko is ANC Western Cape Media Liaison Officer