A Cape Flats committee of about 200 people is demanding the return of about 64 hectares of Constantia land worth millions of rands.
The committee, headed by Grassy Park residents Christiaan Pietersen, 72, and Cassiem Kherekar, 63, lodged its application with the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights six years ago. It is now preparing to go to the Land Claims Court in a case due to start on April 30.
The applicants' descendants say their families lived in Constantia for many years.
Commission officials would say only that the issue had been prioritised for the new financial year, which starts next month.
Pietersen said he knew of 23 coloured families who had once owned properties in the now up-market area, and that the sizes of the properties ranged from about 1 hectare to about 5,26 hectares.
The applicants, who live in the Cape Flats, are claiming land along Ladies Mile and Spaanschemat River Road, and an area known as Paggasvlei near Groot Constantia. Much of the land has not been built on.
Kherekar, 63, said his family had owned four large farms between the start of the 18th century and 1960, when they were forced to leave the area in terms of the Group Areas Act.
"(We) Being coloured, the ruling apartheid regime considered us unsuitable to live in the area.
"We were given an unreasonable ultimatum, to either move willingly and resettle in an area they considered 'suitable', or face the threat of being brutally removed by force."
Anthony Goldstein, chairperson of the Constantia Property Owners' Association, said Pietersen and other committee members had had two meetings with him on the issue.
Although he welcomed the meetings, he said he could not agree with their approach, because they apparently asked him more than once: "How would you feel if black people should move into your area?"
Goldstein labelled the question as "provocative", and said it was not appropriate for the community and the association to get involved in the matter at this stage.
Pietersen responded: "I get the impression that the people there are not too keen about our applications."
Meanwhile, Pietersen has started to write a book about his experiences. He's intent on telling the story of the community's life in Constantia, their removal and how he heard in 1990 that they could soon apply for land taken from them by the former government.
Pietersen started to investigate, approaching the transfer section of the deeds office, and then succeeded in gathering between 14 000 and 15 000 people who were interested in a claim.
But this large number was eventually whittled down to just 200, who formed a committee in 1995 and collectively forwarded applications.
Pietersen moved out of Constantia when he was 36, and has been living in Perth Road, Grassy Park, for the past 36 years.