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will take to the streets in their annual march to highlight the ongoing struggle to return home.

A Commemoration Walk will take place on Monday. Director of the District Six Museum, Bonita Bennett, said their documentation of this walk dates back to about 2000 but it has taken place “more organically” for a number of years before that.

“Commemorating significant past events becomes more and more difficult. Occasionally overwhelmed by present issues, it might seem like an indulgence to mark the past. But, despite the potential for the issues of the day to completely absorb our attention and energies, we know that it is dangerous to live in the ‘now’ only. Legacies live deep and we need to acknowledge them appropriately,” said Bennett.

Bennett added that the march is a way for them to renew their pledge to ensure that the right to memory is non-negotiable, and its place in nation-building is to be affirmed.

“We remind ourselves of the unfinished business of land restitution, and of the ongoing displacement of people, even as we inhabit the space of the new South Africa. On this day we acknowledge the tremendous impact of the draconian Group Areas Act under apartheid, and its lasting legacy in the communities of people who were directly affected by it.”

Anwar Nagia, the chairperson of the District Six Beneficiary Trust, said the “Walk of Remembrance” had been taking place since the early 1980s.

“As a student at Trafalgar High in 1976, we have been marching and holding demonstrations against what happened to the residents of District Six. In 1989 we had our first national and international Hands off District Six campaign.

According to Nagia, more than 6 000 families were moved to “the wastelands of the Cape Flats”.

In 2014, 110 families returned to their homes in District Six but Nagia said there remains a “political willingness” to return people to their homes.

“The DA wants to beautify the ghettos but the city centre remains out of reach for most people. They are using excuses like identifying the claimants, funding and whether people want to return to the area as reasons for why the process of restorative justice is so slow,” said Nagia.

Nagia added that while the march had decreased in size, the fight for restorative justice would continue. “The truth is the majority of one,” said Nagia.