A 100-year-old claimant who was taken to view her new home in District Six a week ago was told she would get the key on Thursday. When the handover was cancelled at the last minute it was the latest in a chain of disappointments that has spanned decades for thousands of people evicted from the central Cape Town community under the Group Areas Act.
“My mother has been waiting to return to District Six for close to three decades,” said Sumaya Mukadam, the daughter of Shariefa Khan, who turned 100 in April.
“She told me I must dress her up because she thought she was going to be photographed. I had to break the news to her. I said, ‘Mom, this is not going to happen today’. She just looked at me. I could see the disappointment and sadness on her face. It just broke my heart.”
For the past year, Khan has lived in Elsies River with Mukadam, 60. “I asked her to move in with me because she had a terrible fall at the time and had a stroke afterwards. She decided to move in until she gets a place in District Six.”
The age of District Six claimant Sheriefa Khan
— 100
Meanwhile, 93-year-old claimant Joyce Louisa Titus’s family is also worried she will die before she can return to the neighbourhood she loved. Titus’s eyes filled with tears on Thursday when she visited a block of stylish flats that stands where her home used to be, opposite the former Peninsula Maternity Hospital, where all her children were born.
Her daughter, Gloria Alexander, 58, said: “We were robbed of our dignity when we were evicted. We lost our home, the friends and bonds that we had developed over the years. Then democracy came and we were promised a lot things over the years. But those promises are yet to be fulfilled. The eviction deeply affected my mother. She went from being a homeowner to having to rent a house in Grassy Park.
“That was a terrible thing. Grassy Park was like a death trap at the time. In one street you had the Ugly Americans gang, the other way it was the Young Americans and in the other street it was the Junkie Funkies.”
District Six Working Committee spokesperson Karen Breytenbach said Titus’s claim “falls into the so-called ‘late claimants’ group, those whose claims were registered after 1998. So she is not eligible now. She will only be restituted once all the so-called ‘early claimants’ (1995-1998) have been restituted.”
Breytenbach welcomed the announcement by land affairs minister Thoko Didiza that 108 claimants will be able to return to District Six next month.
“Everyone is happy that the 108 units for phase 3 have been completed and that they look good in terms of design and quality of the finishes. The new flats are a huge improvement from the shoddy phase 1 and 2 buildings which have so many issues.
“It’s a dream come true for many, including Mrs Khan, who said she would die happy if she could just live in District Six for one more day,” said Breytenbach.
The number of claimants going back to District Six next month
— 108
“On the bitter side, the claimants are still facing ongoing delays, the department keeps changing the dates, they are still not being transparent on the process. The process is still marred by lots of administrative issues.
“In fact, there seems to be some chaos on the government’s end. The claimants are still being sent from pillar to post by officials. The department told the media claimants would start moving in from Thursday [but so far] no-one has been told yet where to go, when.
“Many families are still waiting for their numerous calls and e-mails to be answered. Many are still waiting to be told if they made it onto the list. Meanwhile more claimants are dying of Covid-19 and old age.”
The land affairs department did not respond to Sunday Times queries..
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