Under the National Party, the notorious symbol of apartheid forced removals in Cape Town, District Six, was renamed Zonnebloem. That has now been reversed.
The move has been welcomed by, among others, Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato, who said it was ‘another step [towards] giving dignity back to residents who once lived in District Six’.
Despite the apartheid government’s efforts – including bulldozing houses and other buildings in the area after it was declared a ‘white group area’ in the 1960s under the notorious Group Areas Act – the precinct was always popularly known as District Six.
The renaming coincides with the submission to the Land Claims Court of a new redevelopment plan for the area by Minister Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza.
Her department said in a statement that the plan incorporated ‘a detailed conceptual layout for re-development; specific details of how the plan is to be funded; estimated timeframes for implementation; and the methodology to be applied in allocating the residential units to the claimants’.
The statement noted that the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights had received 2 760 claims by the cut-off date of December 1998 for restitution as a result of dispossessions of ownership and tenancy rights in District Six.
‘These claims were processed and researched so that restoration and compensation could be offered to the claimants. In 2000, the settlement agreement was signed with the City, the District Six Beneficiary Trust and the Department, setting out the programme for the re-development of District Six. The District Six Beneficiary Trust proceeded with the development of Pilot Phases 1 and 2.
‘After the completion of the initial pilot phases, the community approached government for further assistance.’ Then Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti ‘committed government to assist in the completion of the outstanding houses. Over a period, engagements proceeded towards the development of a plan.’
Phase 3, now under way, was intended to be completed next year.
Mayor Plato said he hoped the new plan ‘will speed up the process of restitution, after many delays, for the hundreds of claimants still waiting to return to the area’.