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[FILE] The object of the bill states that it seeks “to amend section 25 of the constitution, to ensure that the right to property may be limited in such a way that, where land is expropriated for land reform, the amount of compensation may be nil”.
A meeting between Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development Mzwanele Nyhontso and land reform beneficiaries under the Barolong ba ga Rapulana Communal Property Association (CPA) broke down after beneficiaries accused traditional leadership and the current CPA executive of corruption and sidelining the community from land restored through the government’s restitution programme.
Angry beneficiaries confronted the delegation of traditional leaders and government officials over the allegations.
Beneficiary Motshabi Moilwa directed her frustration directly at those present.
“You are all corrupt. You are a sellout. You are eating our things with your wives and families while we… You have given yourself our land as if it only belonged to your fathers. It belonged to our fathers too… they have given themselves farms and have expensive livestock,” Moilwa said.
Moilwa alleged that restored land and government support had benefitted only a select few, and that the CPA’s elected leadership had been replaced with individuals aligned to traditional leaders.
“The problem started when the six people who were elected in a general meeting had to be an executive, but now that thing has changed. Kgosi Seatlholo and Kgosi Rapulana parachuted the Kgosana there so that they can control… ” You were with them there, the five of them… they work there, five of them and don’t call the rest of us,” Moilwa said.
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She further alleged that major financial decisions had been made without consulting beneficiaries.
“For three years, they haven’t even called the community for three years. Now they have made a decision to take the money of the CPA, and then they bought a farm of R1.8 million without consulting the beneficiaries. They took the money to buy the tractors without informing the beneficiaries that there is R39 million,” Moilwa said.
The national Department of Land Reform and Rural Development acknowledged the concerns raised and committed to investigating them.
Minister Nyhontso said the community’s main grievance was that the CPA was making decisions without consultation.
“The community is asking concerns, and their concern mainly is that the CPA make decisions without consulting them, so we had to listen to them, and we need to address that. We must first investigate the concerns of the communities. We have asked them to write them down, and what is important is that they must make sure that beneficiaries do benefit,” Nyhontso said.
Beneficiaries said they would wait to see whether the minister’s commitments translated into accountability.
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