We will not move - family in E1bn hotel premises
CONTROVERSIAL: The family is settled on a piece of land which is perched on the horn of the land belonging to the newly-acquired hotel.
EZULWINI – Never! A family whose home is built within property ‘arguably’ belonging to the recently purchased Ezulwini Sun Hotels is claiming ownership of the piece of land they live in.
The three hotels under Sun International Management Limited have been purchased by Canham Mining International (Pty) Ltd, an Australian company with business interests globally.
The hotels identified as Swazi Spa Hotel and Casino, Lugogo Sun and the Ezulwini Sun were all bought for a collective E1 billion and are envisaged to create jobs for over 30 000 workers.
The family is settled on a piece of land which is perched on the horn of the land belonging to the newly-acquired hotel. Though the actual size of the land occupied by the family remains uncertain, it is estimated to be about five hectares.
The head of the family, Thandi Dlamini, said she has lived on the controversial land for decades, since she was a girl in the 1960s.
She said the land belonged to her late mother Lucia Khabonine Shongwe, who was widowed before she also died in
2015.
“My mother was working as a domestic worker at Ezulwini and we were staying with her in a servants quarters. Later on, we relocated to a compound for the workers of the hotel,” she said.
She said the hotel built a workers compound in the property, which was in or about 1966.
“Two senior managers of the hotel identified as Mr Taylor and Turker settled my mother and her family in the premises here.”
Dlamini said her mother had informed the family that Turker had given her a title hold for the property.
“My mother was supposed to make copies of the paper according her a status of the land, but she did not. Instead she took it to the late Chief Mafelenkhosini because she wanted to submit under the Ezulwini Royal Kraal,” she said. 6(77/('
Dlamini said years later, when in her old age, managers the hotel had turned against the family saying they had settled within land belonging to the hotel.
“At this particular time, there was a dispute in which the royal kraal had to intervene concerning certain homesteads on the boundary of the hotel.
She said when questions were raised on the Shongwe family, the Ezulwini Royal Kraal had disowned the family.
The head of the family said she had asked those representing the hotel why they had not been discussing this issue all these years while her mother was still alive. “The leadership of the Ezulwini Royal Kraal declined to be brought into the dispute, saying the home was built within hotel premises,” she added.
Dlamini said the former manager, Lance Rossouw, had convened a meeting with the family where he was informed about the status quo of the land until he promised to engage Tibiyo Taka Ngwane on it. Tibiyo was one of the shareholders of the hotel before it was liquidated, as it held 39.7 per cent shareholding.
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“We were expecting him to report back after consulting Tibiyo, but he did not come back.”
Dlamini recalled that before her mother died there had been a series of meetings over the land, in which several influential figures were roped in to mediate in the land dispute, including the late Princess Makhungu and Khuzulwandle.
She said she had asked the recent leadership to name the former directors of the hotel but none of them had an idea.
“I told them that the first director was Perry, then Settler, then Von Wissel then Von Dosseldorp.
I knew Rossouw as a guitar player then,” Dlamini revealed.
She said when her mother was given the piece of land, she had spent time and money clearing it because it was a dense forest and was rocky.
Dlamini said a youthful man came to the Shongwe home and started making some demarcations.
She said when she asked what he was doing, he referred her to a Mbabane lawyer who was handling the liquidation process of the hotel.
“This is what they are doing now. They are coming secretely to do things in my home. I will not relent,” she said.
Recounting the history of the hotel, she said it had been bought in 1962 and had an official opening on June 26, 1966.
“Later on, the hotel bought a stretch of land in which it built
a workers’ compound (inkopolo). There was a two roomed house on the family compound, which was eventually extended by my mother.
Later on it was developed to be the bug house that is our family abode,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Headman of Ezulwini Royal Kraal Ndlavela
Mavimbela said he had nothing to report on regarding the land because the matter was still pending, as no conclusive decision had been taken regarding it.