DEAR Editor,-
As South Africa is up in arms to resolve land issues from the ‘old era’, self-made land owners are hellbent on selling other people’s land.
The area known as KwaMadlala location in Port Shepstone has been in the news headlines in the past 30 years, following the bloodshed amid faction fights over the traditional leadership of the area.
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The killings lasted almost 15 years, resulting in women being widowed, children being orphaned and people dispersed to safer locations. When the matter was resolved, people started to come back to their lands and new people arrived in the area.
The problems began when the second self-appointed leadership surfaced and started allocating land without following procedures. The self-proclaimed leaders extracted exorbitant amounts of money from the people they were selling land to – even if it was the land they owned before.
Some families have been in the area since before 1800 and it is high time that authorities stand up and stop the daylight robbery of the poor.
Anyone who needs to reclaim land must follow the right procedures, obtain consent from previous owners, notify neighbours and ensure all demarcations are correct.
I hope Cogta, traditional leaders, human settlement authorities and other stakeholders intervene and come up with a feasible solution because anyone who built on land gained from illegal authorities, becomes illegal as well.
I wonder then how the Department of Human Settlement builds RDP houses on such land?
WONDERING
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