A total of 41 farms worth about R7,5-million will be handed back to the people of Guba village in the Lady Frere district, Eastern Cape on Saturday, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said.
Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza is to officially hand over the land, which is one of the biggest restitution claims in the province. The claimants are descendants of people forcibly removed from their land in 1918 under the Native Land Act of 1913.
The department’s director Nana Zenani said the government would also assist the 1430 beneficiaries by providing restitution discretionary grants and restitution planning grants worth about R6,3-million.
Zenani said the total value of the land, calculated at an average R1 153 per hectare, is about R7,5-million.
The government of the day had removed the community and subdivided the land into farms which were handed over to white war veterans returning from the 1914-1918 World War.
She said the people were dumped at various areas such as Jangwe Village, while others were dumped on the rocky and infertile soil of Guba Hoek.
They were provided with tents by the then regime to live in.
Some were moved as far as the Queenstown area, 150km from Guba, while others returned to the land as labour tenants.
The Guba land settlement agreement between the claimants and the present government includes:
restoring the original land as arranged by the Eastern Cape’s provincial land reform office;
a restitution discretionary grant of R3 000 per claimant’s household; and
a settlement planning grant of R1 440 per claimant’s household. – Sapa