‘THIS IS THE NEW SA WE DREAMED OF’

THE Solomon families have, at long last, overcome many years of slow government processes and opposition from ratepayers in Constantia.

This month, they finally opened their own shopping centre on the farm they were evicted from in 1967. The leasing income from the centre will cross-subsidise the families’ residential development across the road.

The Solomons, whose roots go back 300 years in the Cape, first moved to Constantia in 1902 after buying land at an auction on the Grande Parade. The families developed the land into a farm and lived there for 65 years, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers for export. Taliep Solomon was awarded medals for the quality of his grapes at the Imperial Fruit Show in the UK in 1937.

The properties were extensive, with an 11-room Victorian-style main home and more than 30 additional houses and cottages for other family members and farm workers. Toggo Solomon lived on and farmed the land with his three sons and three daughters. He also ran a bus company, and one of his daughters, Selega Sedin, ran a dressmaking business from the farm.

When Constantia was declared a “white area” under the apartheid Group Areas Act, it is reported that more than 60% of the land in the Constantia area belonged to families of colour, most of whom where Muslim and coloured. All were forced to leave. The Solomons’ farm was sold at a public auction for just R17 500 – less than a quarter of its estimated market value at the time.

So far, the Solomons are one of just two cases in Constantia where the land taken from residents has been given back. As Rashaad Solomon, who was born on the property in 1945, said when he walked around the new shopping centre that features photographs of the family’s farm before it was taken from them, “This is the new South Africa that we all dreamed of”.

It took more than 15 years to regain the title deeds to the land – by then reduced to a dump by the City of Cape Town – and several more to overcome planning approvals and objections.

The local Constantia Ratepayers and Residents Association, chaired by Sheila Camerer, did not support the Solomons’ development because they believed it did not satisfy the “desirability criteria” of the City’s Planning By-Law. The City’s Municipal Planning Tribunal disagreed and approved the development. A subsequent objection from this association was rejected by Patricia de Lille, who had been elected mayor of Cape Town in 2011.

The title deeds were regained by the Solomons the next year. When De Lille rejected the association’s objection, they took the Solomon family to the Western Cape High Court to try to have De Lille’s decision overturned.

The association’s chair, Camerer, joined the National Party in 1982 and served as the apartheid government’s deputy minister of Justice. In 1997 she was elected National Assembly leader of the rebranded “New National Party”, and left in 2003 to join the DA.

Despite this apparent conflict of interest, she was chosen by DA leaders to co-chair De Lille’s disciplinary hearing last year. In the end, Camerer’s association lost their high court appeal, costs were awarded to the Solomons, and the process was finally closed.

At long last, the Solomons have their centre but, to the shame of those who delayed justice, many beneficiaries have not lived to see this dream realised. Land restitution is crucial and far too many cases are long overdue. Using public land to correct apartheid’s wrongs is one way that government can accelerate redress.

De Lille, now leader of the GOOD party and national minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, had previously warned that “at the current rate of restitution, many claimants... will not live to see the return of land which rightfully belongs to them”.

She has called on all spheres of government to expedite the release of state-owned land and is ensuring that her own department is doing just that.

In the past two months, the department is reported to have handed more than 100 properties for land restitution to the National Land Claims Commission. De Lille said she is applying pressure to ensure her department works “very hard to complete all of those outstanding land restitution claims”.

Using more public land for public good would see a much-needed acceleration of land restitution. It is one piece of the puzzle to solving spatial injustice. With public support, rather than objections and appeals, justice for evicted families could be expedited, not delayed.