Three of Mpumalanga’s most influential MECs met Matsafeni community leaders in a series of secret meetings last week in a bid to convince them to sign away land for a 2010 World Cup stadium.
Mpumalanga is already irregularly building a R1-billion stadium on the Matsafeni’s 118ha farm just outside the provincial capital, Nelspruit, after secretly ”buying” the land for just R1 last year.
However, national Land Affairs Minister Lulama Xingwana has branded the deal irregular and illegal. About 750 of the 1 250 community members have appointed international human rights lawyer Richard Spoor to help regain ownership.
Last Thursday Mpumalanga agriculture and land administration minister Dina Pule secretly met hand picked Matsafeni leaders at a Nelspruit restaurant, without Spoor or the community’s other lawyers being present .
When the community leaders refused to sign the agreement, despite appeals to their ”patriotic duty”, Pule summoned them to a second meeting which also included provincial sport minister Jabu Mahlangu and public works minister Madala Masuku at Mpumalanga’s 2010 headquarters.
Spoor was initially allowed into the meeting, before Pule ordered him out as an ”uninvited guest”. She also barred journalists.
It is unclear whether the handful of community representatives signed the proposed agreement.
Spoor warned that any such agreement would be irregular because the Matsafeni community has not been properly consulted.
”Any secret deal will only be challenged and will cause only more negativity. The representatives at the meeting do not have proper mandates and include trustees who have already been rejected by the majority of the community,” said Spoor.
The trustees, who control the Matsafeni Trust, signed the original R1 sale.
They have subsequently been accused of failing to get the 60% vote of support from community members necessary for any sale, not accounting for almost R20-million in revenue from the Matsafeni’s farming activities last year and failing to meet other legal requirements in managing the trust.
”The trustees appear to be drawing large sums of money from community bank accounts and are living the high life,” said Spoor. ”[Members of] the community have received nothing and are kept in the dark.”
Spoor’s clients have applied to the Pretoria High Court to dismiss all the trustees to ”restore accountability”. The case will be heard on May 13.
Matsafeni community coordinator Vuyisile Mdluli, who represents the 750 farmworkers who hired Spoor, said: ”We’re tired of people taking advantage of us. We don’t want to derail the 2010 games, but we cannot allow our ancestral land to be stolen. The deal [with government] must be done openly and be fair to us.” — African Eye News Service