OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kimberley | Thursday
MORE than 400 households forcibly removed from their land in Hartswater in the Northern Cape in the early 1970s will this week receive new land as well as financial compensation in the first urban land claim to be finalised in the Northern Cape.
The claim will see about 440 families receive plots with water and sanitation facilities already in place, and a grant of R16 273 per household.
The beneficiaries will also be able to apply for R16 000 housing grants from the Department of Housing, plus an additional R3 000 housing grant from the Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights.
Families not wishing to settle on the land provided, can opt to take a cash settlement of R16273.
The agreement to make the settlement official is to be signed between the beneficiaries and senior commission representatives in Hartswater on Friday.
The community previously lived on a piece of land known as Thagadiipelajang, south of Hartswater, which was proclaimed a township in 1959.
The then Department of Bantu Administration and Development later decided to “deproclaim” the township, and resettle black workers to Pampierstad in the former Bophuthatswana in line with the apartheid government’s homeland policies.
The forced removals started in April 1970, and the remaining houses were demolished.
The actual number of people affected could not be confirmed, but according to the claimants they numbered about 1000. The land had not been used since.
In terms of the land claim settlement, the families are to be given property on a disused airfield north-west of Hartswater.
The land has already been developed by the Hartswater local council in a bid to address the housing problem in the area, and each stand has a toilet and running water. The beneficiaries will be able to use their cash grants to erect homes on the land.