A group of 54 Mpumalanga families will have much to celebrate this weekend when the land claims commission returns land they lost during apartheid, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Friday.
Land Claims Commissioner Nceba Nqana said the handover celebration would take place on Saturday, on the eve of Freedom Day.
“The successful settlement of this claim shows government’s commitment to push back the frontiers of poverty thus ensuring that every South African enjoys the freedom that we fought so hard for,” Nqana said.
The former residents of a location called KwaMadala near Breyten were removed from their land in 1959 and were crammed onto smaller stands 19 kilometres away at KwaZanele township. The families were allocated four-roomed houses to rent and were deprived of land to farm, said Nqana.
At KwaMadala, each family owned a 260-square-metre stand, which enabled them to be subsistence farmers and grow crops and keep livestock, she explained.
Nqana said there were 6,548 families living on 800 stands at KwaMadala, but only 54 lodged land restitution claims for their lost land, which was since owned by the Msukaligwa municipality in Ermelo. – I-Net Bridge