Verulam land claimants get R5‚7 million compensation payout

Fifty-two households and 217 beneficiaries of the Verulam Mission land claim will receive about R5‚7-million for the land they lost under apartheid.

“The R5,769,244 that this community will receive as financial compensation for its collective pain will not undo the misery the people have suffered. But it acknowledges their humanity. It allows for a future‚” Mcebisi Skwatsha‚ deputy minister of rural development and land reform‚ on Friday.

Before the forced removals of the early 1970s people of different races‚ cultures and religions lived together in Verulam. Indians remained in the area‚ Coloureds were forced to move to Newlands township and black people were moved to the new township of Ntuzuma.

“As with many other communities across the country‚ the Verulam Methodist Missions community was unceremoniously removed from the land that their forefathers had occupied for many years‚ with beneficial occupational and grazing rights … they derived their livelihood from agricultural farming. They were economically independent.

The compensation was financial because the KwaZulu-Natal claimants' land is today a residential and industrial area.

Skwatsha urged the claimants to use the compensation money to invest in land‚ houses and education: “This will be an investment for you and your children's future.”