The impoverished Richtersveld community, seeking to finalise restitution for land currently held by state diamond mining company Alexkor, has turned to the courts to compel the government to provide them with legal aid. This comes as the state has allocated an additional R17-million for its own legal costs.
The government’s additional allocation for litigation has emerged in the land affairs vote in the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure. Initially earmarked for restitution grants, the money could not be spent and ”has been shifted from transfers to households, to goods and services to fund the unanticipated legal costs of the Richtersveld land claim”, according to the Treasury document. It is in addition to the R4-million set aside for litigation for this financial year, according to Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin.
The government has rejected a proposal that it advance the required R5,4-million against the ultimate settlement.
The wrangle over legal aid, to begin in the Cape High Court on Monday, is the latest twist in the seven-year battle. At stake is the Richtersvelders’ ability to enforce their right to restitution and compensation, as upheld by the Constitutional Court in October 2003. The court’s decision could be voided if they cannot present the best possible case, including expert testimony, before the Land Claims Court.
The government is opposing the community’s claim to the land, mineral rights and compensation of R2,5-billion for lost diamond proceeds and environmental damage. Instead it has proposed R65-million based on today’s value of the compensation paid to white landowners in the 1920s when the Richtervelders were evicted.
A meeting between Erwin and the Richtersvelders scheduled for next Thursday could affect the course of the case. But on Monday the court bid to secure legal aid proceeds. The Richtersveld community leader, Willem Diergaardt, has argued that the government is constitutionally obliged to extend legal aid. In addition, the Restitution of Land Rights Act provides that the chief land claims commissioner can provide for legal costs either through the state legal aid structures or the commission’s own budget.