RENOVATED Silaka Nature Reserve on the Wild Coast near Port St Johns has 18 chalets on offer but has been closed to tourists for nearly a month thanks to a complicated row over a multimillion-rand land restitution deal involving seven villages.
More than R65-million has been paid out to individual land claimants in the surrounding 2357-hectare Caguba area since 2008, said the head of restitution in the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (RDLR), Zukile Pityi.
The argument has roots in the forced removal of residents from the 320-hectare reserve when it was established in the apartheid era by the Cape Nature administration.
However, the current discontent is being driven by post-1994 issues.
Restitution, compensation, intra-community politics, and an uneven pace of development and change in government departments have contributed to a drag effect on progress, the Dispatch was told.
Sicambeni village, one of seven villages in the project, and which is historically and geographically closest to the reserve, has raised a heavy protest.
On April 16, Sicambeni villagers gathered at Silaka and ordered that the gates be closed to tourism, said Rubushe.
As a result, 20 workers were sent home to the villages, but four rangers and the reserve manager are permitted to remain at their posts.
ECPTA had to bow to the locals’ demands since ECPTA was a “tenant” on land owned by the villages, said the CEO.
Sicambeni was challenging the land deal’s founding “Settlement Agreement” signed in 2008, specifically the operation of the Communal Property Association (CPA), which represents the seven Caguba villages and the RDLR.
The settlement binds the parties to conditions and obligations, one of them an unfulfilled promise by RDLR to spend R17-million on development in Caguba.
This was the “nub” of Sicambeni’s complaint, he said.
But Pityi said they were waiting for Caguba to come up with viable projects and business plans involving the appointment of mentors, before the R17-million could be allocated and spent.
Rubushe said Sicambeni had also demanded a new structure to regulate the interaction between Silaka and Caguba, so a new Core Management Committee (CMC) had been set up.
He and his executive director of operations, Vuyani Dayimani, said that the “post-agreement” phase was causing big problems.
“Land restitution does not end with an agreement,” they said.
Pityi said some areas were left out of the agreement, and people who were not signatories started working the land without consulting the claimants.
There was also a conflict between the CPA and an unnamed trust committee and he tried to “bring peace” between the two structures, even though it was new policy of his department to do away with trusts in favour of CPAs.
A business model was also needed to allow Caguba to share in the reserve’s profits and jobs.
Rubushe said that Silaka was their flagship, and what happened there was a test case for communities surrounding their 19 other reserves. —
Land claim closes reserve
More than R65-million has been paid out to individual land claimants in the surrounding 2357-hectare Caguba area since 2008, said the head of restitution in the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (RDLR), Zukile Pityi.
The argument has roots in the forced removal of residents from the 320-hectare reserve when it was established in the apartheid era by the Cape Nature administration.
However, the current discontent is being driven by post-1994 issues.
Restitution, compensation, intra-community politics, and an uneven pace of development and change in government departments have contributed to a drag effect on progress, the Dispatch was told.
Sicambeni village, one of seven villages in the project, and which is historically and geographically closest to the reserve, has raised a heavy protest.
On April 16, Sicambeni villagers gathered at Silaka and ordered that the gates be closed to tourism, said Rubushe.
As a result, 20 workers were sent home to the villages, but four rangers and the reserve manager are permitted to remain at their posts.
ECPTA had to bow to the locals’ demands since ECPTA was a “tenant” on land owned by the villages, said the CEO.
Sicambeni was challenging the land deal’s founding “Settlement Agreement” signed in 2008, specifically the operation of the Communal Property Association (CPA), which represents the seven Caguba villages and the RDLR.
The settlement binds the parties to conditions and obligations, one of them an unfulfilled promise by RDLR to spend R17-million on development in Caguba.
This was the “nub” of Sicambeni’s complaint, he said.
But Pityi said they were waiting for Caguba to come up with viable projects and business plans involving the appointment of mentors, before the R17-million could be allocated and spent.
Rubushe said Sicambeni had also demanded a new structure to regulate the interaction between Silaka and Caguba, so a new Core Management Committee (CMC) had been set up.
He and his executive director of operations, Vuyani Dayimani, said that the “post-agreement” phase was causing big problems.
“Land restitution does not end with an agreement,” they said.
Pityi said some areas were left out of the agreement, and people who were not signatories started working the land without consulting the claimants.
There was also a conflict between the CPA and an unnamed trust committee and he tried to “bring peace” between the two structures, even though it was new policy of his department to do away with trusts in favour of CPAs.
A business model was also needed to allow Caguba to share in the reserve’s profits and jobs.
Rubushe said that Silaka was their flagship, and what happened there was a test case for communities surrounding their 19 other reserves. —
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