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Cape Town, May 19, 2019 – Land restitution in District Six, has been a slow and frustrating process for those removed from the area during apartheid. However land claimants in the area remain cautiously optimistic as their restitution case against government gains momentum in court. Courtesy #DStv403
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Cape Town, September 17, 2018 – The City of Cape Town is once again being accused of underselling prime land. Activists say the city has lost over 100-million rand, in a deal that favoured property investment giant, Growthpoint Properties. Watch full story below:
Cape Town, 2 August 2018 – According to research by the University of the Western Cape, 2-point-3 million people have been displaced from South African farms since 1994. Just under half of them forcibly removed from land they worked and lived on for decades. As Parliament’s land hearings reach the Western Cape this week, we focus on one such eviction, in Stellenbosch. Farm workers say they’re not protected, and need better security of tenure, especially now that new legislation is being considered. eNCA’s Pheladi Sethusa has the story.
Kimberley, Northern Cape, 27 June 2018 – In hearings on land expropriation without compensation this week – Nama and KhoiSan people said they must be the first to get the land back. For descendants of South Africa’s so-called first people, land restitution has been a frustratingly long process. Particularly because documentary evidence of ownership is rare. eNCA’s Pheladi Sethusa has more.
Cape Town, 22 June 2018 – Fed-up Gugulethu residents in Cape Town on Friday threatened not to vote in 2019, if they’re not given houses. Human settlements minister Nomaindiya Mfeketo met with some of the people living around the Cape Flats township. Watch full story here.
Cape Town, 11 May 2018 – The parliamentary process for land expropriation without compensation, will start in earnest in mid-July. That’s when the window for public written submissions closes. The Constitutional Review Committee has now even pushed back their report back date, as their first mammoth task is sifting through thousands of submissions. eNCA’s Pheladi Sethusa reports.
Cape Town, 21 March, 2018 – While many South Africans were commemorating Human Rights Day yesterday, a group of Capetonians took to the streets. Marching under the banner Land for the Living, marchers called for more urban land to be prioritised for affordable housing. eNCA’s Pheladi Sethusa filed this report. Courtesy #DStv403
Cape Town, 21 March, 2018 – Hundreds of people are expected to march through the Cape Town city centre today, demanding housing in urban areas. eNCA’s Pheladi Sethusa speaks to a Social Justice Collision member for more. Courtesy DStv403
NOTE: Article first appeared in The Citizen newspaper on May 13, 2014.
Rand Uranium mine on the West Rand will enter into talks with concerned residents in Bekkersdal this week over unused land in the area.
The land close to the mine, which is owned by the mine, has been standing empty for nearly 30 years.
Residents in Bekkersdal attempted to occupy the land earlier this year but were stopped when the mine issued an interdict against their action in January.
Thabang Wesi, spokesperson for the Greater Westonaria Concerned Residents’ Association, said “they (Rand Uranium mine) withdrew the charges because they understand that we need this land”.
Residents were not stopped by the interdict but by “other pressing issues”, said Wesi.
“We need that land. It’s vacant and there’s no development happening there. Bekkersdal must grow like other townships.”
The only residents seen by The Citizen on site yesterday were miners leaving to go home and municipality workers paving a new road to connect the mine to the township.
Wesi described the vacant land as being as big as Bekkersdal itself. “The mine is in the township but doing nothing for the people who live there. They are only developing the land and not the people,” said Wesi.
The current management of the mine also stands accused of not contributing to the community trust fund.
“They have to contribute – if not they must go” said Wesi.
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