At a ceremony on November 15, members of the Giba community in White River, Mpumalanga, will become owners of Burgers Hall farm — land they were displaced from half a century ago.
Handing over Burgers Hall is the first step in the resolution of a land claim that will end up returning 1645 ha of land (which cost R29 232 738) to about 500 households.
Xolani Luthuli, communication officer for the regional land claims commission (RLCC) said that the claims laid by the Giba people met all the acceptance criteria and requirements of the commission.
They were dispossessed of land that they had a legal right to, in terms of the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act, and they were not compensated in any way.
The area produces bananas, ginger, and litchis, and the claimants, who are presently scattered around Hazyview, Bushbuckridge and Mahush, are wanting to return to the land and start farming commercially.
Luthuli said this was the most desirable settlement from the RLCC’s perspective as it ”provides tangible redress to the ravaging effects of racial dispossession”.
He said many land owners had been willing to sell their land, and the claimants were willing to consider other forms of compensation for land which could not be restored to them.
The claimants would be assisted by strategic partners (Boyes group & South African Farm Management) to develop the necessary management and marketing skills to run their land, said Luthuli.
The Giba people are historically part of the Matsebula nation. They arrived in the Hazyview area in about 1814 after being driven out of Swaziland, and occupied the area which was later to become Burgers Hall farm and surrounding farms.
This occurred before the land had been registered in any way by the state; the first formal title to the land was granted to Mr Alois Hugo Nellumpius in 1876.
As more and more white people moved into the area the Giba people slowly saw their rights to the land being whittled away — first through enforced labour tenancy contracts, and then, between 1948 and 1978, by being physically dispossessed and displaced. This occurred under various acts which gave white title holders powers to displace African people.
The communities were dispersed to Bushbuckridge and developing Bantustan states.
Apparently people were given ”Trek Passes” which gave them a number of days to move. If they did not move within the specified time then two cows would be impounded per day as a fine. They lost most of their livestock and belongings. Ancestral graves, scattered throughout the region, have allegedly been ploughed-over for banana plantations, some of them as recently as 2001/2002.
”No amount of money can compensate the suffering and trauma they were subjected to… The pain will always be in their memories and becomes evident when they relate their ordeal”, said Luthuli.
Regional land claims commissioner Nceba Nqana said he was proud to see the resolution of this claim. ”It brings us closer to achieving a restitution legacy that all South Africans can be proud of”, he said. – Sapa