Reflections on District 6

Note to editors: This is an extract of a speech that the Mayor delivered at the District 6 Project hand-over on 24 August 2013.

This place has a painful past.

Once a vibrant community, the people who made their lives here were forcibly removed by the Apartheid regime under the notorious Group Areas Act.

In that half-century of oppression, there were many tragedies, each with their own truth.

But the case of District Six has been an especially sad symbol that has stuck in our collective memory.

The community who lived here was a diverse mix of people.

They had a special energy, living in the heart of the urban space of which Cape Town was comprised.

I know that energy well.

It is about fighting for justice, both in the here and now, and in the future.

But it is also personal for me.

I can remember being a little girl sitting on my grandmother's stoep. She lived at number 39 Tennant Street in District 6. She was forced to move to Lavender Hill because of the Group Areas Act.

Today, when I drive past the address, my happy childhood memories are mixed with the pain I feel because of her forced removal. It is pain that will remain with me. And so, perhaps I am not as invested as the people who were forced to move from here. But I know what it was to give up your lives and be dumped in the middle of the Cape Flats.

I know the horror of that injustice and the feeling of being almost powerless in the face of history. But as great as the obstacles were then, we overcame them. And we did so by never allowing each other to lose faith.

It has not always been easy to keep that faith since the advent of democracy. The realities of restitution in District 6 have bought with them a new pain for those who have long had justice denied.

I remember when this process was started years ago. The establishment of the District 6 Trust seemed like it would provide an avenue for families to reclaim their heritage, for themselves or their families. But there were delays in the implementation and, we can all admit now, flaws in the original conception of how restitution would be achieved.

The original model had a vision of a whole range of interventions, from residential to commercial developments. Beneficiaries were supposed to be shareholders in the Special Purpose Vehicle designed for the purpose of making sure that the community could profit through their asset ownership as well as business opportunities created through commercial interests.

But it was perhaps not right to expect people to pay a quarter of a million Rand to access those opportunities. When your home has been unjustly taken from you, you shouldn't pay for the privilege of getting it back.

And so there were delays until we heard that President Zuma had committed the national government to funding the restitution process. Since that time, we have seen some real changes taking place.

The District 6 Development Committee has taken charge of new project plans and phases for implementation. These will allow people to have real access to a better future.

The District 6 project is one where all three levels of government have committed to working together. The national government is providing the development and project planning as well as the funding. The provincial government is assisting with regulatory matters.

The City, as the landowner, is making the land available as the developments become ready to be implemented. We are also committed to providing the planning and rezoning changes needed to facilitate development. This is in addition to our commitment to provide bulk services.

We will provide all of these facilities and streamline applications as they are needed and as the national government submits detailed project plans to us with detailed cost estimates and timelines so that we can provide whatever is necessary as quickly as possible.

We especially look forward to the completion of the ‘Accelerated Phase,' where even more people will be able to move into their homes. The ‘Accelerated Phase' should see faster delivery given the fact that the architect is on board with innovative plans for urban design and the fact that the land to be developed is mostly already correctly zoned.

In conclusion, for the purposes of today, we are welcoming those who are benefitting from Phase 2. You have waited a long time for this moment. There are certain tragedies so vast in scope that their legacies live on. Their injustice runs through our history and into our foreseeable future. We are forced to live with their effects.

In ways, seen and unseen, they have shaped us and the country in which we live. That is why we are still working hard for a better future. And while it will take us a long time to make that future a reality, let us accept the justice that we can get today.

Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.

This article by Patricia de Lille first appeared in Cape Town This Week, the online newsletter of the mayor of Cape Town.

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