A PIECE of land has been identified by the municipality to resettle people who were forcibly moved during the apartheid era from West Bank and East Bank in East London.

The land, along Woolwash Road near Amalinda, will accommodate some of these families, according to Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku.

Speaking to beneficiaries at a land restitution meeting held in the mayoral boardroom on Monday, 29 March, Faku said more than 400 housing units would be built to accommodate some of the people affected.

"We are committed to making a difference and reimbursing those who were treated unfairly."

The gathering was a follow-up to a meeting held between the provincial rural development land claims department, the City and the East/West Bank Forum.

"This is an issue that affects innocent people who were unfairly moved and we are putting our necks on the block and will implement the project," said Faku. Building would begin in the next financial year.

Sharing her views about the housing project and the land that had been acquired by the City, beneficiary Vuyiswa Sontashe said: "We are grateful to have been recognised and we are looking forward to having better houses than where we live now."

Another beneficiary, Ntombizodwa Goyi, added that she was looking forward to the start of the project. "We have been living in unfavourable conditions and we deserve better."

The houses that would be built would bring back their dignity as the former people of East and West Bank.

A majority of black inhabitants of the East and West banks were moved 25 kilometres outside the city, to Mdantsane. The aim of the move was to turn Mdantsane into a fully fledged town, semi-autonomous but economically integrated with white urban areas.

Between 1964 and 1970, thousands families from East Bank and West Bank were resettled in Mdantsane, but the envisaged growth turning it into a city never materialised.

There was instead a growth in unemployment and poverty, along with violence and crime.