Given its rich heritage, the area should be considered a historically important site in which black landowner rights are integral
Endless court cases and threats plague community of South Africa’s most costly restitution settlement
A key figure in the return of more than 1 000 claimants to Cape Town’s inner city, Shahied Ajam was working on a multi-billion rand land restitution project
This story was produced in partnership with Pulitzer Center. Details of the land claim settlement for MalaMala, one of South Africa’s most exclusive game reserves, are unlikely ever to be made public after a deal was reached outside of court proceedings in 2013. The settlement was the largest in the country’s history and saw the […]
Section 25 of the Constitution is the key but a new Expropriation Act is also urgently needed
A Land Claims Court decision reversed on appeal has devastated weary labour tenant applicants
Current land reform policy is so bogged down by bureaucracy that there’ll be no quick-fix solution
Lucas Ledwaba talks to ANC stalwart Andrew Mlangeni about his experience of dispossession and land restitution
Many agree that the failure to implement land reforms was the fault of the government rather than a weakness of the Constitution
‘The role and function of civil society is crucial in keeping the public focused on the issue of land rights’
Mwelase case claimants are adamant about their right to acquire their ancestral land.
After 13 years of government stalling, about 18 000 Hilton College Estate labour tenants will have their case heard in the Land Claims Court.
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/ 27 November 2007
After a decade-long struggle in the courts, Richtersvelders will on Saturday celebrate the return of their land in a handing over ceremony in Alexander Bay. Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana will hand over to the community the deeds to 194 600ha of land.
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/ 21 November 2007
South Africa’s land restitution is a big success story, acting director general of land affairs Tozi Gwanya said on Wednesday. Five thousand claims out of the 79 696 lodged still needed to be settled, of which about a third would not be concluded before next year’s deadline for completion, Gwanya said at a media briefing.
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/ 17 October 2007
The multimillion-rand cost of fighting the Richtersveld land claim was money well spent, the Department of Public Enterprises said on Wednesday. It was responding to a query on the final legal bill for the case, which was settled last week.
Tears of joy flowed on Tuesday when the Richtersveld community got a court order restoring land taken from them seventy years ago. ”I am overwhelmed with joy. I can’t hold back my tears,” said community leader Willem Diergaardt. ”This is a big moment in the history of the Richtersveld.”
A settlement has been reached on the Richtersveld community’s troubled land-restitution deal, lawyers said on Monday. They said the settlement would be presented to Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Geldenhuys on Tuesday morning. ”We’ve settled,” said Rudolph Jansen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.
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/ 25 September 2007
Opposing groups from the Richtersveld community came face to face in the Land Claims Court in Cape Town on Tuesday as the court prepared to weigh up a settlement agreement. The agreement was reached in April this year between the state and the Richtersveld Sida !hub Communal Property Association.
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/ 20 September 2007
A group of Richtersveld residents is to challenge a settlement agreement with the government when the document goes before the Land Claims Court in Cape Town next week for ratification. The agreement followed a 10-year court battle by the Richtersvelders for the restoration of land taken by the state for diamonds mining.