Land claims court unhappy with commissioner as it dismisses Ramorula community’s claim

The regional land claims commissioner for Limpopo was rapped on the knuckles by the land claims court for a claim referred to the court by a group of people who claimed they were dispossessed in 1959.  

The court ruled the claimants, the Ramorula community, who claimed they were dispossessed of the farm Klipplaatdrift 43 JR in Limpopo, were not a community as defined in the Restitution of Land Rights Act.   

In expressing its displeasure, the court imposed a punitive costs order against the commissioner and the minister of rural development and land reform.

It ordered them to pay for the costs incurred by the landowners on the scale between attorney and client.  This includes the costs of two counsel and a corresponding attorney where employed. The court also ordered them to pay the fees and expenses of the landowners' expert witnesses.

The court said after being presented with evidence by the farm owners, that the Ramorula community were never in possession of the land, the commissioner should not have proceeded with the claim.   

In 2010, when the land owners filed their plea, the commissioner's legal adviser Richard Mulaudzi had threatened them with expropriation in case they did not sell their properties to the state.  

The court said expert reports made it clear the land claim should have been lodged in respect of portion 9 only, not the entire Klipplaatdrift farm.  

Judge Muzikawukhelwana Ncube said the claim for restitution was in relation to a dispossession of a group of persons who resided on portion 2 of Klipplaatdrift. 

The judge said portion 2 was subdivided to form portion 9. Portion 9 was then sold to the state in settlement of the land claim and it was transferred to the Ramorula Community Property Association in 2007. 

Despite this transfer, the community continued to pursue a claim for the entire farm. The owners of the farm contended the extension of the claim to other portions constituted vexatious litigation. 

In his judgment, Ncube said the deeds history of the Klipplaatdrift farm showed the first registered owner of the whole Klipplaatdrift 221, later 266 and now 43 JR, was Johannes Hendrik Boshoff.  

“He became the owner on November 5 1861. Four years later, the farm was subdivided into portions.”

Ncube said portion 2 owner Raymond Kerslake evicted people from his land in 1959.

Ncube said claimants must establish it was a community that had a right in land. It must also establish it was dispossessed after June 19 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices. 

Ncube said there was not even a shred of evidence led on behalf of the claimants to establish the existence of a community at the time of dispossession by Kerslake.

Ncube said the evidence from Prof Chris Boonzaaier, instructed by two landowners, supported by aerial photographs produced by Siegwalt Küsel, established black people settled in Klipplaatdrift in 1920 and settled on white-owned farms as labour tenants.  

“The evidence shows evictions took place from the section of Klipplaatdrift known as Ga-Ramorula, not from the whole of Klipplaatdrift.” 

Ncube said the land claims commission was made aware of the grounds of defence by two land owners in 2007, but nothing was done about it. 

"Expert reports made it clear the land claim should have been lodged in respect of portion 9 only, not the entire Klipplaatdrift farm.” 

The court said had Mulaudzi read the expert reports, he could have advised the commission to withdraw the claim and said there was no need for Mulaudzi to threaten the landowners with expropriation.

"In future this court will be forced to make cost orders against the responsible officials of the commission and not against the commission as such,” the judge said. 

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