Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
`That’s where my father’s house used to be,” says Michael Ngeno, pointing to a pile of rocks in the middle of an open field in Ventersdorp. “My parents built it in 1955, and it was a comfortable home for us. We had a school nearby, and a clinic. The soil was rich – my mother and I would plough maize, beans and sugar cane here. Really, our lives were good.”
He pauses. “White people then shattered our wonderful home and dumped us on a dry land.”
Rusting trucks and an old car are all that remain from the time Ngeno’s family left their land in a rush two decades ago. Yet, says the upbeat Ngeno, the land is a paradise. “This land may have many rocks but we can remove them This land may look dry now, but there is underground water which once served our farming needs very well. As you can see, some of the boreholes are still visible and there are many who were ruined. I plan to live my whole life on this good land.”
The “good land” is Doornkop farm in the district of Ventersdorp in what was the Transvaal, later part of Bophuthatswana. Ngeno’s family was among the first to settle there in 1955. In 1979 Ngeno’s family and 120 others were forcefully removed from Doornkop, despite having paid 550 each for their 8,5ha plots.
Ngeno was only 15 years old when the trucks arrived to relocate his community to Gamndaagte, more than 300km away. But he remembers every detail of November 3 1979, when he was awakened by the sounds of dogs barking and people shouting. His father’s house was razed to the ground by police and soldiers in bulldozers.
The people were herded at gunpoint on to open trucks with sheep and cattle, and transported to their “new home”. “In that place any attempt to plant was futile. My father had to sell his trucks and farming equipment he used in Doornkop,” said Ngeno.
In Gamndaagte, Ngeno worked at a diamond mine, but he was retrenched in 1989. Since then he has been doing only “piece” work.
But now, 20 years after his father’s land was given to white farmers, Ngeno has his farm back. The commission on land restitution restored the Doornkop community’s ownership last week. “We had been fighting a long battle with the government to give us our land back in the past, and now we have it we must use it well,” said a delighted Ngeno, adding that the R3 000 settlement grant he and the other 23 families received proves he will have a better life again.
The Land Claims Court will move swiftly to certify the ownership of former residents. Chief land claims commissioner Wallance Mgoqi said his department will soon issue certificates of ownership to the claimants.
He told the community: “We regret that some people died before they could receive their land, but it is with great rejoicing that those of you who are here today have your land back.”