MBOMBELA – Two kings are trying to claim parts of Mpumalanga back for their nations. However, they are up against two other groupings, namely the BakaNgomane and the descendents of the Boers.
Mr Hans Bornman, a historian who has done extensive research into the matter, explained that everyone seem to have decided they want a piece of the pie since the South African Government recently extended the deadline for land-restitution claims to 2018.
“Since the government spent R1 billion on buying back Mala Mala Game Reserve, groups seem to be thinking, ‘Image how much they’ll pay for the rest of the country’. It will not be solved that easily.”
The reason is that while Swazi monarch, King Mswati III has lodged a claim with the Land Claims Commission, three other groups Bornman knows of are planning to follow suit. The areas in question overlap.
According to Bornman, the Swazis have wanted what they claim is their land since 1984. This originally included the area north of Swaziland up to the Olifants River and east to the Pongola River.
The land claim also includes the former KaNgwane homeland, established for Swazis in South Africa by the former government. It was returned to South Africa in 1994 and includes the southern part of what is now Nkomazi Local Municipality, Umjindi Local Municipality and a part of Albert Luthuli Municipality.
In turn, the Vryheids Front Plus (VF+) plans to claim back portions of the land up to the Crocodile River from which Afrikaner farmers were forcibly removed by the former regime to create KaNgwane.
Bornman has is his possession the original contract between the farmers’ forefathers and the Swazis. The Boers paid for the land with cattle. He explained that a court would have to decide to whom the land belongs.
Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini, along with other traditional leaders and the Ingonyama Trust, which owns and administers land traditionally owned by the king, reportedly also plan to lodge a claim to restore the former Zulu Kingdom (legislation only makes allowance for land lost after 1913). This reportedly also includes parts of what is now Mpumalanga.
Yet the Ngomane people are in turn planning to claim land back from the Zulu, which they claim is historically theirs, according to Bornman.
He could not comment on the exact extent of the claims since he had not yet seen the documentation, but said the most reasonable way to move forward after a successful claim by any of the parties would result in people being allowed to keep living where they were at the cost of paying the new owner for the use of the land.
“I am worried that this thing will get out of control,” he concluded.
