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NELSPRUIT- For decades, the imposing granite statue of Boer hero Paul Kruger has dominated the main entrance to the Kruger National Park.

Now members of the Mahlangana clan in Manyeleti near Bushbuckridge want the statue removed from Kruger Gate and replaced by one of their own heroes: 19th century king Ma'nyeleti Mnisi.



"This would be a fitting tribute to a great hero who fought for his people," said Oris Mnisi, historian and spokesperson of the Mnisi chieftainship. "The other nations have honoured their respective kings and now we want to honour King Ma'nyeleti."

Mnisi said the king ruled from the 1820s to the late 1850s and held sway over a swathe of land from the former Lourenco Marques (modern-day Maputo) to Mashishing (formerly Lydenburg) and Badplaas, "including the entire area making up the Kruger Park today".

Over the decades King Ma'nyeleti led the Mahlangana as well as Shangaan, Swazi and Mapulana clans in the area, said Mnisi. He also fought Portuguese colonialists in the Lebombo Mountains.

"King Ma'nyeleti was a good friend of King Sekhukhune, and was very brave," he said. "That is proven by the fact that he killed the elephant that killed him. They both died at the same spot, and he was carrying only a spear. The elephant crushed him after he had stabbed it, and they died together."

Mnisi said representatives of the clan had approached the Mpumalanga department of local government and housing in a bid to replace Paul Kruger's statue with one of Ma'nyeleti.

Departmental spokesperson Simphiwe Kunene said he was not aware of the request, but promised to investigate.

Kruger National Park spokesperson Raymond Travers also expressed surprise at the proposal. "We haven't had an approach like that yet- I think it's very interesting. A couple of years ago we wanted to remove the statue to rehabilitate the area around it but we couldn't because we didn't comply with the procedures of the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

"I would imagine that any proposal like this would first need to go through a full scoping report and would have to comply with the agency's procedures.

King Ma'nyeleti already has one reserve in the named after him- the 22,000 hectare Manyeleti Game Reserve to the west of the Kruger National Park.

The Mnisi clan lodged a successful land claim in the area several years ago and now helps the Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency manage the reserve. All lodges in the Manyeleti reserve, which is home to the big five- lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo- are privately owned and lease land on concession.

The Shangaan name Ma'nyeleti means "shooting star".

According to Mnisi, the king got the name because there was a shooting star the night he was born at a kraal less than a kilometre from where the Kruger National Park and the Manyeleti Game Reserves converge.

Labels: land claims, land reform, manyeleti, restitution

NELSPRUIT- A geographical names committee has been set up in the densely populated Bushbuckridge area and is expected to consider changing the names of about 40 villages.

Bushbuckridge, which was recently transferred from Limpopo to Mpumalanga, has a population of about a million, most of whom live in deep rural villages.



"We are expecting many people to come forward and raise their concerns as we have realised that many villages' names have to be changed because they have no meaning or relation to their historical backgrounds," said Zondi Mkhabele of Bushbuckridge local municipality.

He said the name of Bushbuckridge itself could change.

Name of police station

At a recent public meeting, an elderly resident called Mabel Nkuna, 79, suggested that Bushbuckridge's name be changed to Khwahlamba and that a statue be erected in honour of King Ma'nyeleti.

She said Bushbuckridge was the name of the first police station that was built by white people on Masana hill in the early 19th century because the nearest police station at the time was 25 km away in Graskop.

She said King Ma'nyeleti was a great leader who led four peoples - the Mahlangana, Swazi, Mapulane and Tsonga- and that he had referred to the area as Khwahlamba. She said the king's ancestors also had used this name.

"Ma'nyeleti was one of the kings in the Mnisi royal kingdom who fought with whites in the Lebombo and Drakensberg mountains and who also summoned thundering rain when there was drought," said Nkuna.

She said the drought had stretched from Mashishing to Pilgrim's Rest, Bushbuckridge and even Badplaas.

Nkuna explained that the king was friends with King Sekhukhune of the Pedi people during the Anglo-Boer war and helped hide some of his people.

'Shooting star'

She said Ma'nyeleti was killed when a bull elephant trampled him.

She said Ma'nyeleti literally meant "the shooting star" because a star fell from the sky the night he was born in a kraal, less than a kilometre from where the Kruger National Park and Manyeleti Game Reserves are today.

Nkuna said the name of the game reserve should be corrected to Ma'nyeleti instead of Manyeleti.

Labels: bushbuckridge, hoedspruit, manyeleti, restitution

Impoverished villagers living next to the Kruger National Park in rural Mozambique have pledged 53,000ha of their land for conservation, providing a shot in the arm for South Africa’s ambitious cross-border “Peace Park” initiative.

The bequest will become part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP), from which the 2,000 villagers hope to make money out of tourism, hunting and game meat production. They pooled their communal land to form the Cubo Community Nature Reserve, said Simon Munthali, regional head of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), an international NGO working with communities on the Mozambican side of the peace park.

“It’s the first community reserve in Mozambique joining the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park,” he said. “Depending on its success, we want to replicate it.”

There are no human settlements in the Cubo reserve, which is not ideal for commercial livestock or crop production because of sandy soils and low rainfall. The community members live on adjacent land on the southern bank of the Massingir dam, where fishing is their main livelihood.

The Cubo community exercises usufruct on the reserve land, which is being denuded by charcoal-makers from outside the area and over-grazing by livestock. The AWF secured funds from the USAids Global Development Alliance to fence the reserve. Once it has been secured, the community plans to negotiate via the Mozambican government for the opening of the GLTP fence to allow free movement of wildlife across the border between the two countries.

“The project demonstrates that local communities can be allies in fostering nature conservation,” said Munthali. “This is particularly relevant for these communities located adjacent to the GLTP, which face possible eviction by the state to create space for wildlife.”

The GLTP joins the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, which covers one million hectares, to the Kruger. Eventually, if things go according to plan, the GLTP will become one of the world’s biggest wilderness areas, covering more than 3.3 million hectares.

Five years ago, the future of the transfrontier project hung in the balance because it appeared that more than 30,000 villagers living on the Mozambican side of the peace park did not want to move. But, in recent months, at least 6,000 villagers have indicated they are willing to relocate to areas where they will be provided with better access to infrastructure and social services.

The German Development Bank offered to help source funding for the move, on condition that resettlement is voluntary. The move is expected to start at the end of this year or early next year.

Villagers who do not want to move out of the park are welcome to stay on in fenced-off enclaves. But, said project manager Arrie van Wyk, many villagers only moved into the area after Mozambique’s civil war ended, and they are not used to living with wild animals.

“They want to resettle,” he said. “They accept that the government wants to develop the park and realise they will benefit in some way.”

In an area where the illiteracy rate is more than 70% and the average monthly household income less than R200 a month, tourism and rehabilitation work on the Massingir dam are the major sources of employment.

Three tourism destinations have been opened in recent months on the Mozambican side and a unique “bush to beach” experience is being marketed by operators. Within three weeks of the opening of the Giri-yondo access gate between the two countries last December, 1,057 cars had passed through, generating R153,000 for the Peace Park.

“Although this is not a large amount, it illustrates a turnaround point in the development of the Limpopo National Park. For the first time, tourism is beginning to contribute to the ultimate sustainability of the park,” said Willem van Riet, CEO of South Africa’s Peace Parks Foundation, which initiated the cross-border initiative.

Van Riet said at least half the fence in the Kruger separating South Africa and Mozambique had come down last year. With the dropping of the fence, wild animals- including about 350 elephants- are reclaiming ancient migration routes across the border.

Members of the Cubo community envisage generating jobs through the construction and maintenance of the fence around their reserve, management of the reserve, ecotourism business operations and the creation of related small, medium and micro-enterprises.

At present, they share one primary school, one small health clinic, one broken water pump and one bad road linking their village to the district headquarters.

Munthali added that, in creating a reserve, the community had a capital asset to leverage other financial support, and were protecting their communal land against unscrupulous private investors.

Although it was still too early to say how the Cubo community reserve would fit in with the GLTP, Van Wyk said “it is an important initiative that is contributing to the bigger vision of the conservation area”.

Labels: great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, mozambique, restitution, transfrontier park

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."

Labels: land claims, land reform, restitution

The situation in Zimbabwe has demonstrated for the southern Africa region that if land issues are handled poorly, conflict of one kind or another is almost inevitable, a report by the International Crisis Group has warned.

The ICG, an independent organisation, said that there would have to be an increase in political will to tackle land reform in South Africa. The inequality of land ownership and the historical injustices are considered the worst in Africa, with three quarters of agricultural land still in the hands of 60,000 white farmers.

The President of the ICG, Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, said it was unlikely that South Africa would replicate the Zimbabwean land crisis but warned that 'countries across the region are burdened with chronic land problems that are frustrating attempts to promote economic development and eradicate poverty.'

The report recognised that post apartheid South Africa had undertaken substantial land reform but to reach its target of redistributing 30% of agricultural land into black hands by 2015 required a major effort on the part of government, donors and NGOs. So far only 3% of rural land had been transferred to black people since 1994 and only one half of a percent of the budget had been devoted to land reform.

"The land issue remains politically explosive, not least because levels of land dispossession over the last century and a half rival those anywhere in the world. Land expropriation was the central tool of social control and economic subjugation," the report said.

The report, entitled Blood and Soil states that in South Africa "violence on farms and in rural areas remains unacceptably high," and the ANC government is not adequately addressing what could become a political time bomb if land redistribution is not urgently tackled.

The report recommends a number of steps that should be taken to improve South Africa's land distribution programme, including the formation of partnerships, encouragement of innovation, support of land reform beneficiaries with HIV/AIDS, improvement on reform planning, and holding a southern Africa land summit.

The ICG warns South Africa "that violence fuelled by inequality and unfulfilled expectations could become a much larger factor in its future, as the emotive issue of land becomes linked to dissatisfaction over the country's basic ills: unemployment and poverty." This, the ICG claims will become a major issue in the 2009 elections.

The full ICG report can be read at the International Crisis Group's website.

Labels: land claims, land reform, restitution, zimbabwe

PRETORIA- Almost 50% of the country's national and provincial parks are under dispute over ownership in one form or another, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

"Communities are now becoming owners of national parks and it is forcing the parks system to rethink how to approach co-operation with communities," said the epartment's director-general, Crispian Olver.

While co-operation with communities living on the boundaries of conservation areas had improved, the matter was still touchy, he said.

There was still an old school mindset in SA National Parks and in provincial parks that believed these conservation areas were places for animals and not people, particularly those living on the park's boundary.

But that mindset had changed considerably because of the land claims process.

Olver said conservation authorities initially saw this as a big threat.

But the department was increasingly seeing it as an opportunity as it linked some of its work, such as community-based natural resource management and building community benefits from tourism and small, medium and micro enterprise developments.

"You are starting to see a series of, I would almost say, experiments where communities are now developing various economic activities around parks and even in parks."

For example, the Makuleke in the northern Kruger National Park had game lodges that they owned and managed.

"In fact have hunting safaris, which is in its own right a controversial issue."

There were similar projects in the Richtersveld, Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park and in the Eastern Cape.

"A number of experiments are underway which are going to be valuable for the future of conservation in this country. It is forcing the pace of change with conservation authorities," he said.

Labels: land claims, land reform, national park, restitution