Pretoria under massive land claim

05 March 2014 - 02:04 By Lehlohonolo Tau and Sipho Masombuka
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Tshwane. File photo
Tshwane. File photo
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

About 700000 people claiming to be descendants of Ndebele King Tshwane have claimed ownership of Pretoria, where the seat of government - the Union Buildings - is situated.

The city - measuring 687.54km² and home to national government departments' headquarters, the Afrikaner heritage memorial the Voortrekker monument and Freedom Park - is at the centre of one of the biggest land claims ever to be contested in court.

Last week, the claimants won the first round when the Land Claims Court granted an order compelling the regional land claims commissioner for Gauteng and North West to reinstate their claim.

According to court papers, the tribes - who were "subsistence farmers" with livestock - were tortured and some killed when they were forced out of Pretoria between August 1913 and 1970.

The tribes claim they and their forefathers enjoyed "exclusive occupation of the land in the Pretoria district and its surrounding areas prior to it being forcefully taken from them".

They were loaded into trucks and dumped on the outskirts of Pretoria, "where there was not enough land for grazing and cropping".

The community claims some were left with permanent injuries owing to torture. Some died of starvation.

History reveals that the Southern Transvaal Ndebele settled in the area, which later became Pretoria, in the 1600s.

In 2000, the then Pretoria City Council adopted the name Tshwane in recognition of the Ndebele king.

The Tshwane Community land claimants, made up of seven tribes - Modimokoana, Bapo, Moletlane Ndebele, Manala, Letswalo, Bakgatla and Malete - lodged their claim in 1998 but it was rejected.

Andrew Tladi, a consultant who lodged the claim on behalf of the community, stated in his affidavit that the claimants held "customary law ownership" of Pretoria.

He said their removal was effected in terms of the 1913 Land Act and the 1957 Group Areas Act.

One of the claimants, Paulos Mthethwa, 67, remembered the day he came home from work in 1965 to find his once-thriving settlement of Boekenhoutskloof, about 20km northeast of Pretoria, in ruins.

Then 18 years old, he was told to take a bus to Stinkwater, near Hammanskraal, where he found his family curled up in a "borrowed" tent in the middle of the bush.

"My sister had revolted and refused to leave. She was beaten up and thrown into the Pretoria Central Prison. Her house was bulldozed and her belongings trucked to Stinkwater," Mthethwa said.

His grandfather, Mafu Mthethwa, had settled in Boekenhoutskloof after they were forced out of Marabastad.

"Now that the claim is to be reinstated, there is hope for justice. I have hope that the land will be restored to us. My mother died [in November] a broken woman," the father of four said.

Though Tladi could not quantify the extent of the claimed land, the group's lawyer, Munesh Singh, said chances of success were good.

"One has to look at it logically as well. If [restitution] is not possible, there should be just and equitable compensation for the community."

Mpumalanga's luxurious Mala Mala game lodge was handed over to the N'wandlamhlarhi community in January following its successful claim on the 13.184ha of land - for which the government paid the previous owner Michael Rattray R1.1-billion.

Selby Bokaba, Tshwane's municipality spokesman, did not say whether it would oppose the claim.

"Where claims of this nature are lodged, the likely outcome will be compensation as opposed to restitution," he said.

In his affidavit, Tladi said in December 2007 the regional land claims commissioner assured the claimants in writing that their claim was under review and that the office was waiting for the settlement package.

Rural Development and Land Reforms pokesman Linda Page said the claim was rejected in 2003 because the community did not submit a resolution authorising Tladi to lodge the claim on their behalf.

She said the claimants had also failed to submit required information to the commission despite numerous requests

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