Hundred more families to move into District Six

By Tando Mfengwana
13 January 2007

One Hundred Cape Town families that were evacuated from District Six are set to return back soon.

The families were told that they had been selected from thousands of applicants and that building will start.

The legal adviser to the District Six Beneficiaries and Redevelopment Trust, Igshaan Higgins said the families were some of the first applicants, with the names verified by the national Land Commission.

Higgins told the Weekend Argus that claimants would have to come up with R125 000 for their three bedroom houses.

There will be a 15-year suspension on selling the houses.

This will form part of a social contract or legally binding agreement biding the all claimants from selling.

The agreement specifies that no shebeens, prostitution, drug merchants or gambling would be allowed.

So far 1 980 applications had been processed and a further 400 were still waiting to be processed.

A total of 4 000 new homes are planned for the area.

Nadeem Hendricks of the Trust said, the families identified would live in the first 2 500 units built, the balance would be occupied by late claimants.

Zarina Allie, the spokesperson for the District Six Concerned Claimants Committee, dismissed the proposed development.

Allie questions why the first 24 claimants had to pay R60 000 while these claimants would pay R125 000.