Nicky Barker
Induna Jonathan Buthelezi lives with a small community in the tribal lands of the Buthelezi next to the Ngome Forest in KwaZulu-Natal. The clan occupies a piece of land on two timber farms adjacent to the Sapekoe Tea Plantation, where they all work. The farms run steeply down a mountain, with 80ha of timber planted on the slope.
The owners of the two farms were keen to sell their properties, and the clan was keen to buy. They reasoned they would be able to build a comfortable settlement at the top of the hill near to their work, they would be able to derive an income from the timber plantations and the bottom area, which is barely accessible , would lie fallow for occasional grazing.
In terms of the Land Act of 1993, the government makes a grant of R15 000 available to families in landless communities so they can buy land. The families under Induna Buthelezi had just enough to meet the purchase price. The contract was duly drawn up, the money was duly paid into the Thembitshe-Buthelezi trust, and the members of the trust, who are all illiterate, attached their thumb prints to the document.
According to the Department of Land Affairs, the families were never quite sure of the boundaries of the land they were buying, so it came as a great shock to them to find that the deed of sale included neither the timber plantation nor the top part of the farm — all they had bought was the fallow area at the bottom.
The clan, not surprisingly, is making death threats against the induna for supposedly cheating them out of their one-and-only government grant. The induna is bewildered and upset that the promises made to him by the farmers have come to nothing — and the farmers are happy to have an irrefutable legal document that has ensured them a good price for a piece of intrinsically useless land.
The blame for this fiasco, says a mediation consultant, should lie squarely with the Department of Land Affairs, which should have advised the Buthelezi families about what they were actually buying. Land affairs, however, regrets the misunderstanding but has a solution.
Right next door to this Buthelezi clan is another offshoot of the Buth-elezi tribe, led by the Ntuli and Khumalo families. This group was evicted from the Ntendeka Wilderness area in 1966 so that the 5 230ha piece of rare and valuable mixed forest types could be granted protected status.
The former residents have applied to have this land back. But with poor soil and fragile terrain, it could not support a community of 900 people. The land claims commissioner is in the process of negotiating an alternative settlement.
But though the area is protected by law from exploitation and the former residents are in the middle of a land claim, they have invaded the wilderness, requested permission from the Department of Forestry and Water Affairs to start ploughing, and have begun tearing down fences and erecting buildings.
The department applied for an urgent interdict to evict them, and the land claims commissioner has stopped work on their land claim until they have vacated the territory.
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini is backing the department. He gave the invaders till noon this Friday to inform him they intend to move, or he will support the eviction notice.
The crisis, as far as conservationists are concerned, has been averted, and the wilderness area is safe from invasion. But the crisis for the illegal residents is far from over.
They claim they needed to move away from the neighbouring territory as their lives are in danger from the adjacent Buthelezi tribe.
The leader of the Buthelezi tribe in that area is outraged at the suggestion that his people pose a threat to the squatters. In fact, they see the illegal families as the answer to their prayers.
If this group could be persuaded to join forces with the Buthelezi clan, their combined grants from the government would be enough to buy the remaining portions of the timber farms, including the plantations and the area at the top that borders the tea estate.
However, as the official from land affairs admits ruefully, the decision must always be taken by the communities themselves. And this is why land redistribution is not working in KwaZulu-Natal, claims Mike Peter, representative of land facilitation and land-use planning company Trans- Kingdom.
“The government is trying to apply a one- size-fits-all system of redistribution to landless communities,” he says. “But what it is not taking into account is that, particularly in Zululand, land ownership is a highly complicated affair, tied up closely with clan membership and social structure.”