The land invaders who have proclaimed a section of Tekwane West as Nomzamo Park, say they aim to be the first group to expropriate land without compensation from the municipality.

According to their spokesman who does want to reveal his name, their plan is to develop unused land at their own budget through a registered trust account to finance infrastructure.

Nomzamo Park is an area owned by the City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM).

It was named after the late Winnie Nomzamo Mandela, the ex-wife of icon Nelson Mandela and the community members started calling it that after they commenced with land grabs in May.

They claim that she gave them a signal to start taking land. Meanwhile public hearings for the possible review of Section 25 of the Constitution are still under way around the country.

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This follows a mandate by the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces to determine whether a review of Section 25 of the Constitution and other clauses are necessary to make it possible for the state to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation.

A few months ago the invaders were seen allocating land among themselves, and a couple of months later they now have created roads in the area and are demanding services from the municipality.

On Tuesday morning they marched to the Mbombela Civic Centre and handed over a memorandum of demands to the acting municipal manager, Patrick Msibi.
“Our vision is to turn invaded land into suburban estates that testifies the power of black disadvantaged collective ideology,” he explained.
However, CMLM spokesman Joseph Ngala said there is no place in Mbombela called Nomzamo Park.
“That name is not in our books. That area has been allocated and it is earmarked for Tekwane’s urban hub.

The hub is supposed to support the community and it is not earmarked for human settlement. We do not know what formed the name Nomzamo.

Firstly this is a land invasion, which is illegal, and we have plans for the the section and this contradicts our plans. The municipal manager received their demands and we will look into it. We will then take it from there,” said Ngala.

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When Lowvelder visited the site the land invaders were gathering for their daily meetings. They have already started building houses, they have a road sign and they said they meet there every day.
The spokesman said they have future plans for the area.

“This is a land invasion that turned into land expropriation. We have agreed on developing this land from our own pockets. We demand that that the municipality considers the expropriation of land clause to review it in order to sustain local economic development.”

They say they want water and electricity, but do not want the municipality to be involved in waste management.
“We do not want them to benefit from our waste. This is why we will do everything for ourselves without their assistance. Research was done and we know they can make money from our waste. We are aware that water is from the Inkomati Usuthu Catchment Management Agency.

This is why we need the municipality to assist us with getting running water. We cannot supply electricity, hence we need them to assist with upgrading the current power lines to cater for every unit within this area, although some of the things we will be able to do ourselves.

We have already started creating streets and we even have parks for the kids. We have future plans and we believe that in the near future we will have a well-developed settlement that has everything we need,” he said.

Their memorandum of demands included land for settlement, expropriation of land with lifetime compensation as tuition for service delivery, and title deeds.
The memorandum also stated that they demand that the Department of Human Settlements, through CMLM, speedily eradicate the programme of RDPs for the benefit of those who are in dire need of housing and have been on the waiting list for a long time.

“We are tired of watching councillors giving houses to a certain group of people affiliated to a certain political group. We have decided to start a park that will accommodate people who cannot afford to buy land from councillors and for people who cannot afford to buy land at all.

We do not have money, hence we do not expect anyone to pay. This area is free for everyone who is from KaNyamazane. We did our own investigation and we are aware that this area is available even if there are people who are trying to take it from us. Some people threatened us and they claim this land, yet we know the truth,” said another representative.