Over 4 000 community members from the rural town of Vogelfontein in the North West will receive land expropriated by the apartheid government, the North West provincial government said on Sunday.
”Today [Saturday] we all bear witness to the righting of the wrongs, to the return of respect and human dignity to a people who were unjustly robbed of these noble qualities,” said North West premier Edna Molewa.
She was addressing a gathering in Vogelfontein on Saturday. The town of Vogelfontein had a chance to rewrite an important chapter of its history by the way of land restoration to ”its rightful owners” but also by way of people who ”shall work the land to achieve maximum benefits for the community, the economy and the general population of the province”.
She said while land restoration was small compensation for nearly 96 years of oppression, the 4 100 residents of Vogelfontein who would be receiving land, still had a chance to benefit from the land.
”Use the land wisely and productively. Use the land for the development and growth of your families and the entire Vogelfontein community,” Molewa advised the recipients. – Sapa