Nearly three decades later, 108 District Six claimants finally received the keys to their homes, as part of the land restitution process.
The first group of 20 claimants received keys to their new homes on Thursday, paving the way for other claimants to return home, reports the Weekend Argus.
For Mavis Alexander, 83, the return to District Six on May 17 will be a dream come true.
“She’s ecstatic, it’s been a long wait, but finally it’s happening. She constantly tells me that it’s no longer a dream. And on May 16 she will collect her keys,” said her son Jeff Alexander.
“She can return to where she belongs. I am hoping that she finds happiness in her last days.”
Government said the third phase of the restitution process would be carried out in phases until May 25. The 108 claimants lodged their claims between 1995 and 1998.
The majority of them were dumped on the Cape Flats after the apartheid government moved them shortly after it introduced the Group Areas Act.
The District Six Working Committee took the Department of Land Reform to the Land Claims Court in 2019 after the process had been delayed several times.
Chairperson Zahra Nordien described the journey as “unnecessarily long” for people who bore scars of trauma from the apartheid government.”
Several claimants, including the oldest, 100-year-old Shariefa Khan and the leader of the D6 Working Committee, Shaheed Ajam, have since passed away.
Nordien said that once the latest process was concluded, the claims of yet another 3 000 claimants would still need to be attended to.
These are related to claims lodged in 2000 but their papers got lost in the department and had to re-apply.
Minister for Land Reform, Thoko Didiza, said the department was dealing with disputes of families and verification challenges with some of the allocated beneficiaries.
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