Seventeen Salem landowners have filed a Notice of Appeal against a Land Claims Court judgment on Friday 2 May that could see them lose thousands of hectares of farmland.
Seventeen Salem landowners have filed a Notice of Appeal against a Land Claims Court judgment on Friday 2 May that could see them lose thousands of hectares of farmland.
The move comes after the claimants, whose bid under the land restitution act has dragged on for more than a decade, emerged victorious in the high court in Grahamstown on Friday 2 May.
The Land Claims Court finally passed judgment in the long-running case.
It involved the Salem Commonage, a tract of land around the village 20km south of Grahamstown.
It is occupied by smallholdings and farms ranging from 60ha to 200ha, including a private game farm and lodge.
It also includes the Salem Club and cricket grounds and its two churches.
The claimants group, mostly elderly people with roots in the Salem area, were initially confused by Judge AJ Sardiwalla's ruling.
However, after an explanation from one of the state attorneys, the crowd erupted in jubilation.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail, shortly after what he described as a landmark case, Mava Mlola of the state attorney's Umtata office said, "Everyone has been waiting for this judgment. I think it will affect the cases that the Eastern Cape Regional Land Claims Commission is handling."
He said that in the 12 years it took to reach this point, the commission had done considerable groundwork for the case.
Mlola was representing the Eastern Cape Regional Land Claims Commission.
Makana Municipality is listed as the sixth defendant in the matter and Makana Mayor Zamuxolo Peter made a turn at the Grahamstown high court on Friday.
The judgment is a 64-page document which incorporates extensive historical and geographical arguments from a range of experts. It took all day for the judge to read.
Of the next step, Mlola said, "We'll consider the judgment against the instructions of my client department, the Regional Land Claims Commission.
"Everything else will follow after the regional claims commission has given further instructions to my office."
However, according to lawyers for the landowners, Vryheid-based Cox and Partners, the effect of the appeal is that implementation of the judgment is suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.
Central to the case was dispute over the existence of communities in the Zuurveld prior to the 1820 settlers.
Among the factors in deciding whether the claim was valid, Sardiwalla considered whether the claimants constituted a community and whether it was dispossessed as a result of racially discriminatory laws or practices.
In his order, Sardiwalla, who was accompanied by assessor Dr Wallace Mgoqu, said the Salem community was dispossessed of the its right to land after June 1913.
This was the result of past racially discriminatory laws and practices in terms of Section 2 of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994.
The plaintiff was represented by Notshe SC, instructed by Malusi and Co attorneys.
The Regional Claims Commission was represented by advocate Joel Krige, instructed by the state attorney Umtata.
The claimants are Mzukisi Madlavu, Lingani Nondzube, Mtutuzeli Madinda, Douglas Rwentela, Misile Nondzube and Ndoyisile Ngqiyaza.
Among the points of the land-owners' appeal is that the judge erred in holding that a community existed in terms of the land rights act at the alleged date of dispossession.
They claim the evidence of main witness Nondzube was unreliable, saying, "the single most important aspect is that he related a version allegedly told to him by his grandfather, who must have been 175 years of age when the story was related to him, which on the face of it ought to have caused the Judge to have rejected his evidence."
