Massive EL land claim with Hawks

The 16-year-long land claim of hundreds of East London residents forcefully evicted from the East Bank in the late 1960s and early 1970s has landed with the Hawks.

At issue for the East Bank Land Claimants Committee (EBLCC) is R97-million, which the committee claims the local Land Claims Commission and Buffalo City Metro have had sitting in their accounts for more than a decade but have failed to meet their mandate and spend it on building the claimants’ houses.

The money for the development was given to the commission by national government 16 years ago.

John Tyler, a paralegal from Johannesburg, who is representing the EBLCC in their claim, said he opened up the case on March 1 this year with the Hawks for alleged fraud, money laundering, racketeering and misrepresentation.

Tyler said he told the Hawks that the “crime scene” was “the mayors office” with the defendants being BCM mayor Xola Pakati, and the municipal manager, Andile Sihlahla.

Hawks spokeswoman Captain Anelisa Feni did not respond to queries yesterday, which was Human Rights Day, a public holiday.

Tyler’s move was welcomed by BCM spokeswoman Bathandwa Diamond, who said the municipality had nothing to hide.

Speaking with a BCM lawyer at her side, Diamond insisted they were not holding back the development on purpose, and said there were a range of issues complicating the claim.

The claimants were forcefully evicted off a tract of land in the city, which later was developed to become Duncan Village, Pefferville and a section of Braelyn, which encompasses the traffic department and East London Secondary School.

On February 23 2002, the EBLCC entered a Section 42D Framework land claim agreement with BCM, the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights and national government.

Section 2.6 of this agreement, which was seen by the Dispatch, states: “The BCM has undertaken to work with the commission to manage the funds intended for the development and to assist in identifying land for development for the benefit of the claimants opting for development.”

According to the agreement, the total “restitution award” was R173.4-million, with R97.9-million being made available specifically for development purposes. The remainder – R75.4-million – was paid to claimants who opted to take a cash settlement instead. Of the R97.9-million designated for housing development, R50-million was paid to the local Land Restitution Commission and R47-million was paid to BCM.

Tyler said their chartered accountant had calculated that on February 24 this year, the unspent R97-million paid in two tranches in 2002 (R50-million) and 2008 (R47-million), would have grown with interest to R421-million.

To date, no brick has been laid in the East Bank housing project.

The EBLCC has documented their struggles with BCM and the Land Restitution Commission.

They alleged:

lIn a 2010 meeting between the group’s steering committee and the then Land Restitution Commissioner, it was revealed that the commissioner had appointed himself as “the fund administrator for the R50-million without the approval of the community and without any known fund administration agreement”;

lIn the meeting, the commissioner had told the claimants he was the government official in charge and he would say how their money would be spent. When more “uncomfortable” questions were asked, the claimant group was told to leave the building;

lThe claimants’ then-lawyer was called by a former BCM employee and told to “Keep your nose out our business”;

lA letter used by BCM to cut-off communication with the claimants’ then lawyer contained claimants’ signatures which were brazenly and fraudulently lifted from a random document signed during a previous meeting.

Thandile Luthi, chairman of EBLCC said: “The way in which we have been treated is dehumanising. We do not want to give them any more chances, we have waited long enough. They must deposit the money into a trust so that it can be shared among the beneficiaries.”

Diamond said the R47-million given to BCM in 2008, and under the control of the finance department, had by February garnered R35-million in interest, bringing the total in BCM’s control to R81.7-million.

Diamond said BCM had looked at land parcels and had identified “farm 925” but the problem was that there was already sewage “infrastructure” on the land which required an “environmental assessment certificate” from the Department of Environmental Affairs to determine whether the claimants could be settled there.

She said that once the environmental assessment certificate was awarded, BCM would immediately start work on the land, saying that finances “would not be a problem”.

Also causing a delay was that an extra “1000” claimants had come into the picture. Originally 447 claimants were “identified and profiled”. She said the issue had been resolved.

A third issue was that claimants were demanding middle-class homes with three bedrooms, not RDP houses government was used to building.

Diamond said BCM would not deposit the money into a trust fund set up by the EBLCC’s, Tyler and a law firm “in Rustenberg. The money does not belong to us”. BCM would only put the money into a community fund if instructed to do so by the commissioner. — tylerr@dispatch.co.za