City to fund part of District Six development

THE CITY is in talks with the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform to discuss the re-development of District Six.

The City’s urban planning and design director Erika Naudé said the City remained committed to supporting and co-funding part of the District Six development.

“The funding would primarily support the implementation of infrastructure for the re-development of District Six,” she said.

“The City has had extensive engagements with the National Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform, and the consulting team supporting the national department in recent months.

“These technical discussions are ongoing with a view to preparing and submitting funding requests for infrastructure and associated grant funding for the 2020/21 financial year, in line with the project and procurement timelines expressed,” Naudé said.

Although no final budget allocations have been committed to, the engagements and capturing of information is set to continue with the support of the City to consider the projects for the District Six programme in the draft budget, with a view to directing funds in 2020/21 financial year and beyond,” Naudé said.

Minister Thoko Didiza submitted her detailed plan on the redevelopment of District Six to the Land Claims Court at the 11th hour for claimants who lodged claims between 1994 and 1998 last month.

The plan outlines 954 housing units to be allocated to individual claimants. The proposed plan also provides for about 13 hectares of land, and leaves just over 13 hectares to accommodate high-density developments.

The framework plan is one of the crucial elements in the District Six restitution case. It means the state can be held to the budget and time-frames stipulated to ensure that the redevelopment of the remaining dwellings of the 954 claimants – who filed their claims in 1998 – is finalised early this year.

Once these claimants have their dwellings, the 2014 to 2016 claimants totalling about 1 500 will be next on the state’s plans.

Didiza submitted the “framework plan” as part of the District Six restitution process. Submitting her plans came in the wake of litigation instituted by the District Six working committee against Didiza’s predecessor, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who had agreed to provide a copy of the framework plan by next month, after an order granted by Judge Jody Kollapen in 2018.

But after missing this deadline, the court issued a punitive-costs order against the minister for her role in the District Six delays.

The phases of the various developments are to run concurrently until phase seven, and the department will contribute R280 million to the project in the 2019/2020 financial year.

City remains committed to part funding of this historic project Erika Naudé URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN DIRECTOR