There were tears of joy and jubilation when 1 500 claimants in Double Drift were given their title deeds to land from which they had been evicted in 1991.
Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said the 1 500 Double Drift-based members of the Likhaya Lethu Community Property Association also received a game farm, bought for them as part of the land claim settlement by the state through the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Her department also provided R6-million to develop a wildlife economy business venture on the 1400-hectare Naudeshoek farm.
The money was spent on putting up a 10km game fence, construction of an entrance gate, construction of rangers’ and hunters’ accommodation, construction of a buffalo holding boma, and training and development of community members. She said 61 job opportunities for the community had been created.
Eastern Cape economic development MEC Sakhumzi Somyo and Premier Phumulo Masualle were also at the event.
Speaking on the sidelines, Masualle said expropriation without compensation was not a political statement but was only intended to speed up the land reform process.
“We are not happy with the pace of the redistribution of the land currently because government needs lot of money to buy out landowners. We are battling with financial shortages so expropriation of land without compensation will help,” said Masualle.
Masualle also said the government was spending a lot of money on critical departments like education and health and this was compromising the budget for land reform.
Acting chief director of the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights (CRLR) Zama Memela said it cost his “under-budgeted” commission more than R4-million to purchase Naudeshoek Farm for the people of Ngqakayi. Masualle said the handing over of the title deeds would stimulate the wildlife economy and create jobs through tourism.
Community members were left dispossessed of their residential and grazing land by the establishment of the Double Drift Nature Reserve in 1991.
After lodging one of the biggest land claims in the late 1990s the claim was settled in 2012 opening the way for the establishment of Likhaya Lethu CPA.
Memela said it had been difficult to transfer ownership of land that did not belong to the state.
“This was partly state and partly privately owned land. There were lots of time-delaying factors encountered in the process which involved lots of stakeholders, like the deeds office, and land auditors who had to check which land was owned by the state. The surveyor general’s office was also required because we did not want to transfer land into the wrong hands.”
Memela said the land commission received 17638 land claims in the Eastern Cape alone during the first lodgement which ended December 31 1998. He said these were both large community claims and small family claims. “I must say with pride that so far we have settled more than 80% of those land claims.”
Memela said only 697 land claims were still outstanding.
Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) CEO Vuyani Dayimani said strengthening the partnership between community members and law-enforcement agencies was key to fight poaching.
Chairman of Likhaya Lethu the Communal Property Association Mxolisi Ngesi, 58, said it was a bittersweet feeling for him and the community of Ngqakayi.
“My mother died four months after we were forcefully removed from our land in June 1991. We lost grazing land and cattle that is why I feel like crying. She was unhappy.”
Ngesi said with the help from the ECPTA, they hoped to make a success of their game project.
Beneficiary Sicelo Ndyilo, 55, said he was working in Johannesburg as a miner when he received a call from family members telling them that they had been thrown off their land. “My father said he was sleeping at the police station because he had nowhere to sleep. It was one of the most painful moments in my life.” — malibongwed@dispatch.co.za
Title deeds, bright future for community
Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said the 1 500 Double Drift-based members of the Likhaya Lethu Community Property Association also received a game farm, bought for them as part of the land claim settlement by the state through the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Her department also provided R6-million to develop a wildlife economy business venture on the 1400-hectare Naudeshoek farm.
The money was spent on putting up a 10km game fence, construction of an entrance gate, construction of rangers’ and hunters’ accommodation, construction of a buffalo holding boma, and training and development of community members. She said 61 job opportunities for the community had been created.
Eastern Cape economic development MEC Sakhumzi Somyo and Premier Phumulo Masualle were also at the event.
Speaking on the sidelines, Masualle said expropriation without compensation was not a political statement but was only intended to speed up the land reform process.
“We are not happy with the pace of the redistribution of the land currently because government needs lot of money to buy out landowners. We are battling with financial shortages so expropriation of land without compensation will help,” said Masualle.
Masualle also said the government was spending a lot of money on critical departments like education and health and this was compromising the budget for land reform.
Acting chief director of the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights (CRLR) Zama Memela said it cost his “under-budgeted” commission more than R4-million to purchase Naudeshoek Farm for the people of Ngqakayi. Masualle said the handing over of the title deeds would stimulate the wildlife economy and create jobs through tourism.
Community members were left dispossessed of their residential and grazing land by the establishment of the Double Drift Nature Reserve in 1991.
After lodging one of the biggest land claims in the late 1990s the claim was settled in 2012 opening the way for the establishment of Likhaya Lethu CPA.
Memela said it had been difficult to transfer ownership of land that did not belong to the state.
“This was partly state and partly privately owned land. There were lots of time-delaying factors encountered in the process which involved lots of stakeholders, like the deeds office, and land auditors who had to check which land was owned by the state. The surveyor general’s office was also required because we did not want to transfer land into the wrong hands.”
Memela said the land commission received 17638 land claims in the Eastern Cape alone during the first lodgement which ended December 31 1998. He said these were both large community claims and small family claims. “I must say with pride that so far we have settled more than 80% of those land claims.”
Memela said only 697 land claims were still outstanding.
Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) CEO Vuyani Dayimani said strengthening the partnership between community members and law-enforcement agencies was key to fight poaching.
Chairman of Likhaya Lethu the Communal Property Association Mxolisi Ngesi, 58, said it was a bittersweet feeling for him and the community of Ngqakayi.
“My mother died four months after we were forcefully removed from our land in June 1991. We lost grazing land and cattle that is why I feel like crying. She was unhappy.”
Ngesi said with the help from the ECPTA, they hoped to make a success of their game project.
Beneficiary Sicelo Ndyilo, 55, said he was working in Johannesburg as a miner when he received a call from family members telling them that they had been thrown off their land. “My father said he was sleeping at the police station because he had nowhere to sleep. It was one of the most painful moments in my life.” — malibongwed@dispatch.co.za
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