President, dignitaries to meet District 6 claimants

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will be among dignitaries attending the 53rd commemoration of the declaration of District Six as a whites-only area.

According to the District Six Working Committee, more than 500 dignitaries from all tiers of the government, business, the judiciary, and civil society are expected to attend the event.

They will meet 300 of the current 3 500 restitution claimants.

They are expected to discuss their return and their rebuilding the neighbourhood in the next three years.

Other dignitaries expected to be present include Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Premier Helen Zille, and Mayor Dan Plato.

The meeting follows a recent court victory in the Western Cape High Court where the working committee successfully compelled the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to produce a viable and sustainable development plan for District Six.

They are expected back in court on February 26.

“District Six endured much pain over the years, but she is ready for a revival. We are particularly concerned about the plight of those who remain excluded from housing opportunities to which they are entitled in the inner part of the city, in particular, our young (District 6 descendants), who want to come back, to work and send their children to good schools in the city,” said Shahied Ajam, chairperson of the working committee.

Ajam said many claimants had not yet begun to experience true healing due to the effects of inter-generational trauma – and it was a “great tragedy” each time another claimant died before experiencing the restorative justice they had been longing for, for so many years.