Ndebele tribes claim ownership of Pretoria

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 - 'subsistence farmers' with livestock - were tortured and some killed when they were forced out of Pretoria between August 1913 and 1970. History reveals that the Southern Transvaal Ndebele settled in the area, which later became Pretoria, in the 1600s, notes the report. 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. 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,' he is quoted as saying. Full report in The Times

And in KZN King Goodwill Zwelithini revealed that he and the province's traditional leaders will launch a combined land claim, notes a report in The Mercury. 'We have agreed with the amakhosi in KZN that we will submit one claim for the land that was taken from us as the Zulu nation. If we succeed, we will then distribute the land fairly,' the king said. He said he had tasked the Ingonyama Trust with providing traditional leaders with legal assistance to help them launch the claims. 'Land under the Ingonyama Trust is but a fraction of the land that used to belong to us in the first place,' he said. Ingonyama Trust head Judge Jerome Ngwenya said the trustees were studying the new land claims law to establish if there were limitations to claiming land taken between 1884 and 1913 in the province. 'If the law does not give us limitations we will claim all the land taken from the king. Obviously we cannot get all of it, as some land has been turned into cities and towns. In that case financial compensation would be another option,' he is reported to have said. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)