Ngwako Modjadji
The Land Claims Commission in the Northern Province is investigating the self-styled king of the Babirwa, Moses Mangena, who is allocating land he claims was removed from his people during apartheid.
Mangena has lodged formal restitution claims for Bakgalaka and Nkuna land in the Lenyenye township.
Land Claims Commission project officer Kgotatso Mokgakane confirmed this week that the commission is probing Mangena’s claims. He said the commission asked Mangena on several occasions to honour restitution procedures and to stop allocating land on the site he claims to be his kingdom.
Mokgakane also confirmed that Mangena has occupied quite a number of farms in the area. He said the investigation would shed some light on whether the Babirwa claims about their leadership, and that their land had been stolen during the apartheid regime, were true.
Some of the areas claimed by Mangena include the town Burgersdorp and the villages of Melopye and Bonn which currently fall under the jurisdiction of Nkuna Chief Samuel Mohlaba.
He also wants for his people the Pulaneng, Matlading, Mshenguville and Molate villages, which fall under the jurisdiction of King Bassie Maake.
Mangena is claiming that the villages were established on land that had been forcefully taken from the Babirwa after ethnic wars and later given to Mohlaba and Maake by homeland leaders in Gazankulu and Lebowa.
He claims that the Babirwa tribe, who were under the monarchal leadership of the Mangena family, occupied the entire area but later relocated to Tours dam after ethnic wars broke around 1905.
The Babirwa land claim has been delayed pending a report on the issue, drafted by the Ralushai commission, which is expected to be released soon.
The commission was established in 1996 to investigate “briefcase and self-made” traditional leaders in the Northern Province.
The Bakgalaka Tribal Authority has accused Mangena of lying when he said he belonged to a royal family, and ordered him to distance himself from the Bakgalaka land.
They said Mangena’s father was brought to the land of the Bakgalaka as the foreman of an irrigation scheme and that none of his ancestors belonged to the royal family.
Northern Province Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi refused to release the findings of the Ralushai commission and handed the report to the national government for perusal.
In terms of the Land Claims Act no development can take place on disputed land.