The apartheid force removals caused a lot
unhappiness to most of the Cape Town informal settlers. Many people who lived
close to the then “white only areas” were forced to leave their homes and were
placed in informal areas to accommodate white people. There has been an ongoing
process to compensate the people who were affected. The victims from the Simon
Town forced removals are feeling neglected or ignored by the Western Cape
government as the ongoing restitution program is not focusing on them. The
residence of the areas in the Simon's Town vicinity such as Ocean View are
feeling ignored on their land claims.
Residence from Dido Valley are feeling the most
ignored as they feel like the government has completely forgotten about. The communities’
complaints are that they are completely out of the conversation regarding land
claims. Suzette Farmer chairperson of the committee said “the redevelopment of
Dido Valley and Luyolo is a bitter sweet one as they were one the first
communities to be evicted in 1965”. Since the process of restitution began,
community members from the areas of Ocean View, Dido Valley, Luyolo, Seaforth
and Red-hill want to know why they are not part of the restitution conversation.
Cecilia Thiem from Human Settlement said “when
housing projects commence they do not target specific areas or try to find
beneficiaries and that all housing project must utilize the housing wait list (Database)”.
By: Chuma Matiwane
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