Community’s dignity restored through compensation

Nearly 100 years after land was forcefully taken from their ancestors, hundreds of Thaba Nchu families’ dignity were recently restored when they became the beneficiaries of the Sediba land claim.
More than 500 jubilant families finally received financial compensation for their land by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti, during a handover ceremony in Thaba Nchu last weekend. The recipients are part of the Sediba Reserve claimants who lived in one of the three native reserves in the Free State. The 511 recipients received a cumulative amount of R42-million. The spokesperson for the department, Eddie Mohoebi, said the native reserve was established in terms of the Native Land Act No. 18 of 1913. It includes the Thaba Nchu Reserve, Sediba Reserve, and Witsieshoek Reserve. Mohoebi said that Africans who lived outside the reserves could not buy or rent, and those on the inside could not acquire rights to the land.

According to Nkwinti, the ministry opted for financial compensation as opposed to giving back the land to the original inhabitants. “As you can see, the recipients are too old to work the land and so we opted for financial compensation. Our main aim was to expedite the land claims. This generates hope in those who are still remaining and waiting to get back their land.” The minister said R18-million was handed over to 219 beneficiaries during the first phase of the claim. The second phase took place last weekend, and 500 families will receive R49-million during the third phase of the claim settlement. It is, however, not clear how the money will be divided amongst the recipients. Nkwinti said there were 3 008 land claims in 2009, which were delayed because of problems related to management and research. “Some cases were sorted out in court and at times money was the issue that delayed the process.”The minister added that R60-million was paid to surveyors to draft a report on state land and to find solutions to expedite the process.

The claimants’ patience finally paid off for some of the elderly people in Mangaung who waited many years to receive compensation for their ancestral land. One of them, Emily Lekalake (86), recalled the days of the apartheid regime. The restrictions placed on land ownership affected Lekalake, who said, “The Boers arrived in Thaba Nchu to destroy the work created by the missionaries”. “Missionaries built the community by building schools and churches. The Boers arrived and destroyed everything the missionaries did for us. They returned us to study Bantu education and destroyed the missionaries. They did not want the growth of our communities and were trying to oppress us. Our houses were destroyed. In 1957, my dad was arrested after resisting leaving his home. This was the life we were leading.”

Lekalake said she was grateful for the compensation she received. Another recipient, Ezekiel Pule (75), took out his ANC membership card and raised it in the air. “My mother said to me I must hold onto it because one day our struggle will bear fruits.” Lydia Jammond (89) said she was happy to finally receive compensation, but sad she wishes it could have come earlier in her life. She had hoped government would compensate them when most of her family and peers were still alive.
The Sediba Reserve claim, commonly known as “Stasie”, was lodged by Tau Meshack Motsalane in 1997, accepted and gazetted in 2007. Meanwhile, Nkwinti clarified government’s 2014 land reform target in Parliament last week. He said there were 82 million hectares of agricultural land in South Africa “presumed to be in the hands of white commercial farmers”. Government aims to transfer 30 percent of this land to black farmers by 2014, a total of 24.5 million hectares.
To date, a total of 6.7 million hectares of land, including land transferred in terms of redistribution and restitution, has been transferred.

Nkwinti added that there were close to 9 000 land claims outstanding. “We have 8 770 land claims that we are working on right now. “Of the nine provinces, we have finished seven, and we have got 6 000 (claims) based on scanning in and manual counting. We are moving towards certainty now and are much closer to the real figure, close to the 8 770 figure, and will complete the process at the end of this month.” A land audit, which many believe to be an essential basis from which to tackle land reform, will identify only state and public-owned land and is due to be completed by June. According to the minister, identifying who owned what land requires further work.

“To identify the ownership of land, we need to disaggregate it. Of the land that is transacted in the country, within and outside the state, how many of them (the transactions) are black? In order for us to get this information, we have to work and collaborate with the Department of Home Affairs. That project has started.”