Jaspreet Kindra
Two tribes near Louis Trichardt have been invading state-run bluegum plantations after failing to push through an official claim to the land.
After their claim to their ancestral land – located atop the bluegum-covered Rivola mountain – fell on deaf years, the Shangaan and Venda-speaking communities inhabiting either side of the mountain decided to appropriate the bluegum reserves. They have been invading the plantations since 1997.
Department of Land Affairs legal officer Casper Human says it is unclear who owns the land, but that the department is preparing legal action against the tribes to protect the trees. “It [the land] is registered in the name of the old South African government but we all know that it is kept in trust as it belongs to someone – but we don’t know who, and it is for [the department of] land affairs to sort it out.”
Human added: “We did put an arbitration process into place – they did not stick to it -now they have begun erecting structures. Because they are several tribes, not two communities, involved, it is taking us a while to get an order to evict them.”
The Nkuzi Development Association’s Shirami Shirinda, who has been assisting the two communities in filing their claims, says they were initially blocked by Department of Water Affairs and Forestry officials.
An official from the department said he suspected the two clans had invaded the land fearing that only one would succeed with an official land claim. “Both are afraid that one of them will succeed with their claim and the other will have to wash their hands of the land,” the official said.
While Chief Njhokanjhoka of the Shangaan- speaking community residing in Chavani has vetted the decision to invade, the traditional leader of the Venda-speaking community, Chief Ravele Davhana, is more cautious about the invasions. “I have decided not to block it, but if the rest of my community, who are losing their patience, decide to invade the plantation, I have no choice but to allow it,” he says.
According to the communities, the mountain was their ancestral home for hundreds of years until they were forcibly removed in the 1970s by the apartheid government.
Hlengani Mabasa, chair of the Mahlahluvani Land Claim Committee (the Shangaan-speaking faction), says that apart from the instruction by their chief to not harm the bluegums, they were given the go-ahead to claim what was theirs “by right”. Pointing at the mountain, he says: “Our fathers are buried there and my people are too frightened to even go and put a tombstone on their graves.
“I went there – past the department’s gates, their security guards, and slipped a tombstone over my father’s grave,” he says.
The plantation already has 60 families from the Shangaan-speaking community inhabiting it. Mabasa says the people had no choice: “We had filed our claims but nothing happened.”
Chief Davhana says: “As leaders we are trying to avoid conflict and dissuade the people from invading. The government must learn a lesson from Zimbabwe – the people respect the traditional leaders but they are becoming impatient.”
The Mail & Guardian was unable to elicit a response from the regional land claims commissioner’s office.