downtown PE
Barry Streek
The first major land redistribution deal involving prime urban land has been sealed in Port Elizabeth, where about 4E000 people will soon be given plots in the middle of the city centre.
The Department of Land Affairs is to pump R42-million into the residential development, which will span 140ha of land at Fairview, an area adjacent to the William Moffat Expressway. The original inhabitants were evicted 30 years ago in terms of the Group Areas Act, and the majority of the 1E280 land claims that have now succeeded were lodged by offspring of the evictees.
In an unprecedented move, the beneficiaries of the agreement have agreed to drop their individual compensation claims against the state – in exchange for the R42-million the government will pay the Port Elizabeth municipality for the development.
It has taken more than six years to wrap up the historic deal, which has been pushed by a group of 840 land claimants who banded together to form the Port Elizabeth Land Restoration Association (Pelcra). The organisation then negotiated with the government on behalf of the remaining claimants, persuading all concerned to negotiate together and forfeit their individual claims. The deal was signed by Minster of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza at the weekend.
Pelcra chair Raymond Uren says: “We realised from the beginning that the state would not have enough money unless you made them an offer they could not refuse. It was one hell of a job to persuade our members and one hell of a job to work through the anger over what had happened to them and their families. You had to be patient until we finally confirmed that most people will sign agreements.”
The land applicants will now get a minimum of a 200m2 plot of serviced land, estimated to be worth R10 000. Any other amount granted to settle the land claim will be used as a deposit.
The allocation of plots will take place by lottery but provision has been made for the exchange of residential sites between claimants.
The redistribution of the Fairview land is expected to contribute to the reintegration of Port Elizabeth, breaking down old race-determined apartheid borders. It is on a large scale, perhaps involving 4 000 people, and it could pave the way for similar settlements in areas like District Six, Fordsburg, Sophiatown and Cato Manor.
Uren told the Mail & Guardian a meeting had not yet been held among its members since the signing of the agreement “but the general response is very positive”.
Port Elizabeth has seen of some of the worst forced removals in South Africa. During the 1950s, tens of thousands of people were affected by slums clearance legislation which was used to enforce racial segregation. After 1960 many more were removed from an estimated 3 200 inner-city properties in terms of the Group Areas Act. About 70E000 people – constituting more than half of the city’s total black population at that time – were affected by the removals, according to a report by the Delta Foundation, an NGO.
Through this, Port Elizabeth became a city segregated into unconnected racial “islands”, separated by buffer zones and physical divides.
Uren says Pelcra does not have membership fees although it does pass the hat around at meetings and it once levied R12,50 on each member to help pay for a deeds search. It also received a grant from the Delta Foundation at one stage to employ an administrator to sort out the claims.
“Without the assistance of the NGOs and Delta we would never be where we are. We have calculated that the NGOs have spent in excess of R2-million supporting us.”