Limpopo Land Claims Press Ahead
JOHANNESBURG- The Limpopo regional Land Claims Commission (LCC) is forging ahead in evaluating the land claims against one of South Africa's most fertile regions, which includes a farm belonging to SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni.
The farms are thought to be worth about R3 billion and there is another R3 billion of forestry.
Mashile Mokono, the regional commissioner, has found that the land claims by the Makgoba community for the Magoebaskloof were prima facie valid. These claims are against 168 prime agricultural farms, comprising almost 200 000ha, in the Hoedspruit and Blydepoort areas of Tzaneen, about 70km from Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg).
A number of land owners in the region contend that the claims are invalid.
On the other hand, Charles Molifi, a spokesperson for the Limpopo LCC, said there were many willing sellers who had come forward. Their farms were being valued by the national department of agriculture.
He said those not willing to sell would be referred to the legal unit of the LCC. From there they could take the LCC to the land claims court. Expropriation would be a last resort.
According to a report by the committee representing the land owners, preliminary indications are that as much as 40 percent of the land could be available on a willing seller basis.
Two Government Gazette notices were issued by Mokono last year, in which he identified the farms. One of these is the large Sapekoe Tea Estate, formerly South Africa's foremost tea producer and exporter.
The first Government Gazette notice omitted Mboweni's 2 231ha farm and two farms belonging to Bishop Joseph Lekganyane of the St Egenas Zion Church, whose headquarters are in Limpopo.
A subsequent notice included the three farms. A source in the regional LCC said these farms could not be included in the first gazette because research into them had not been completed.
Cathy Powers, a spokesperson for Mboweni, said he was on record as saying that he was willing to co-operate with the process.
Former Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi also owns a plot in the region, where he has built a huge home known as Pumpkin Palace because it is on a former pumpkin producing farm.
Ramatlhodi said: "I have told the government that I am willing to sell. I can't stand in the way of the land claims. I could not sleep well with that."
Two claims on the farms were lodged in 1998 on behalf of the Makgoba community. These were made under the Land Restitution Act of 1994, which applies to the land from which black people were forcibly removed from 1913.
In his report, Mokono said the land dispossession of the Makgoba community took place after June 19 1913, and the community was forced to scatter.
He said the Makgoba people were dispossessed when the department of forestry established plantations of blue gum and pine.
He described it as "a subtle and indirect act of racial discrimination, which ... cannot be said to have been for the public interest but to divest [the] Makgoba people of their unregistered rights on the fertile land, thereby implementing the racial law that prevented black people from owning or leasing land in South Africa".
The land owners commissioned research by a University of the North history academic, Louis Changuion. His report concludes that the Makgoba community has no claim to the farms in Magoebaskloof.
"The Makgoba tribe occupied the area constituting these farms until the war with the ZAR [Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek] in 1894/95. This war ended on June 11 1895, when Chief Makgoba was beheaded by Swazi warriors.
"The Boer War Council took a decision to remove the Makgoba tribe, as well as their associates- the Tsolobo, the Mmamathola and Mosote tribes, and to resettle them near Pretoria. As a result, all the Makgoba tribe was removed from the area in 1895."
The farms are thought to be worth about R3 billion and there is another R3 billion of forestry.
Mashile Mokono, the regional commissioner, has found that the land claims by the Makgoba community for the Magoebaskloof were prima facie valid. These claims are against 168 prime agricultural farms, comprising almost 200 000ha, in the Hoedspruit and Blydepoort areas of Tzaneen, about 70km from Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg).
A number of land owners in the region contend that the claims are invalid.
On the other hand, Charles Molifi, a spokesperson for the Limpopo LCC, said there were many willing sellers who had come forward. Their farms were being valued by the national department of agriculture.
He said those not willing to sell would be referred to the legal unit of the LCC. From there they could take the LCC to the land claims court. Expropriation would be a last resort.
According to a report by the committee representing the land owners, preliminary indications are that as much as 40 percent of the land could be available on a willing seller basis.
Two Government Gazette notices were issued by Mokono last year, in which he identified the farms. One of these is the large Sapekoe Tea Estate, formerly South Africa's foremost tea producer and exporter.
The first Government Gazette notice omitted Mboweni's 2 231ha farm and two farms belonging to Bishop Joseph Lekganyane of the St Egenas Zion Church, whose headquarters are in Limpopo.
A subsequent notice included the three farms. A source in the regional LCC said these farms could not be included in the first gazette because research into them had not been completed.
Cathy Powers, a spokesperson for Mboweni, said he was on record as saying that he was willing to co-operate with the process.
Former Limpopo premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi also owns a plot in the region, where he has built a huge home known as Pumpkin Palace because it is on a former pumpkin producing farm.
Ramatlhodi said: "I have told the government that I am willing to sell. I can't stand in the way of the land claims. I could not sleep well with that."
Two claims on the farms were lodged in 1998 on behalf of the Makgoba community. These were made under the Land Restitution Act of 1994, which applies to the land from which black people were forcibly removed from 1913.
In his report, Mokono said the land dispossession of the Makgoba community took place after June 19 1913, and the community was forced to scatter.
He said the Makgoba people were dispossessed when the department of forestry established plantations of blue gum and pine.
He described it as "a subtle and indirect act of racial discrimination, which ... cannot be said to have been for the public interest but to divest [the] Makgoba people of their unregistered rights on the fertile land, thereby implementing the racial law that prevented black people from owning or leasing land in South Africa".
The land owners commissioned research by a University of the North history academic, Louis Changuion. His report concludes that the Makgoba community has no claim to the farms in Magoebaskloof.
"The Makgoba tribe occupied the area constituting these farms until the war with the ZAR [Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek] in 1894/95. This war ended on June 11 1895, when Chief Makgoba was beheaded by Swazi warriors.
"The Boer War Council took a decision to remove the Makgoba tribe, as well as their associates- the Tsolobo, the Mmamathola and Mosote tribes, and to resettle them near Pretoria. As a result, all the Makgoba tribe was removed from the area in 1895."
Labels: land claims, land reform, restitution
posted by Kruger2Canyons.com at
Sunday, January 09, 2005
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