Tracking the original District 6 deeds

Shahied Ajam’s District Six Working Committee is engaged in painstakingly piecing together a record of the property deeds of

the original 150ha precinct

that was his childhood

home.

The process is complicated by the fact that some of the original erven have been consolidated under new erf numbers. Much of the area is grassy and vacant - but many parts have been developed since 1966.

The Cape Peninsula University of Technology - built in the “Zonnebloem” of the Nationalists’ creation after the Group Areas Act declaration - is the largest property holder, occupying about 75ha, or half, of the original District Six.

The committee says the city, province and “insensitive landowners” hold a further 22 percent or 33ha.

The “meagre” 42ha, granted for restitution by the city in 2000, is the remaining 28 percent.

“We have lost 108ha, or 72 percent, and that is what we intend to claim back, as land or compensation,” Ajam said.