“I am more than happy, I am over the moon,” Zenzele Ngcolomba, a member of the Prudhoe Community Committee, told Grocott’s Mail following last week’s Land Claims Court judgment awarding the group restitution of 26 farms, including the land on which the Fish River Sun Hotel is located. Their victory comes after waiting for almost 20 years to have their land claim adjudicated.
“We were removed from the land we were born on, and to get back that land, it took us 20 solid years,” Ngcolomba said during an interview at the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown.
The LRC represented them in the case.
“It traumatised lots of us. Many of the people who were involved in opening this land claim are no longer alive.”
But while officials speak of a game farm and tourism, the community has other ideas for the land.
Zukile Pityi, Chief Director: Provincial Shared Service Centre for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, in a telephone interview earlier confirmed the hotel had been bought by the department. “We don’t want to lose the jobs that it provides,” Pityi said. “But I’m not sure what the claimants want to do about the farms.”
He said a game farm featuring the Big Five would bring in more tourism, and more profit for the communities. “It would work better that way. If people are allowed to move on to the land, it will be difficult to manage. It will be great if they decide to stay where they are and use the land.”
Put to committee chairperson Gladman Tom, he said the group had submitted a masterplan for food production. Projects included livestock production, crop production, chicken production and a piggery.
“That masterplan was agreed. The court accepted it, and the Department [of Rural Development and Land Reform]accepted it. We know how to carry out those projects because we grew up in farming production. We don’t have an agreement with the Department about the Big Five,” Tom said. “The Big Five are not going to put food in our mouths.”
The hotel was bought by DRDLR last year, and placed under the caretakership of the Mantis Group.
Carl Haller, New Business Development Manager for Mantis, confirmed that following the judgment, the 12-month caretaking agreement would stand.
“We have 10 months left and we will fulfil that agreement because we are contractually obligated. Thereafter we and community will take direction from the government, who owns the asset.”
Ngcolomba made it clear the group had no intention of running the hotel themselves.
“In South Africa unemployment is enormous,” Ngcolomba said. “That land needs to reduce unemployment in our area. We are not intending to run that hotel ourselves: we need operators like Mantis and others. If they can come up with a proper plan on how they are going to operate, we are happy with them. We’ll take it from there.”
The Prudhoe Community lodged their claim in December 1998 in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, claiming restoration of 26 farms between the Fish and Mpekweni rivers from which they were forcefully removed by the Ciskei Government during the late 1980s. The forced removals were effected by the former homeland government, ostensibly to make way for large-scale agricultural development.
They were moved to the Prudhoe farm, where they were provided with a vacant piece of land. The community received no compensation from the former Ciskei government for the land they had lost and were not provided with any assistance to rebuild their lives at Prudhoe farm. The land they were removed from remains largely unused, save for grazing.
The claim of the Prudhoe Community was contested by the AmaZizi Community who claimed 85 farms, which include the 26 farms claimed by the Prudhoe Community. However, the Land Claims Court found that the Prudhoe claimants constituted a community and had a valid claim in respect of all the farms and dismissed the claim of the AmaZizi in respect of those farms. The Court did, however, find that the AmaZizi Community has a valid betterment claim in respect of certain tribal areas, which was not contested by the Prudhoe Community.
The case before the Land Claims Court took more than seven years and was plagued by various delays. In a scathing judgment handed down Tuesday 10 April, AJ Barnes lamented the role of the Regional Land Claims Commission in the Eastern Cape in adding to the delays in the case. She commented on the poor quality of the referral reports in which the Commission recommended that the Fish River Sun farms be restored to the AmaZizi Community without articulating the basis for it.
The Land Claims Court found that the Commission had failed to uphold the standard set in section 195 of the Constitution, in which organs of state are expected to act in accordance with democratic values and principles, including a high standard of professional ethics and the effective and efficient use of state resources.
The Court ordered that the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform restore the land to the Prudhoe Community (except for one farm which was purchased by a black African farmer in 1994 from the Ciskei Government) within six months of the order, and that the community’s rights be adjusted to full ownership of the farms. – Additional information from LRC media release
