Villagers contest chief claim in high court

THE Amahlathi Crisis Committee, representing eight villages near King William’s Town, is challenging in court the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims decision to recognise the legitimacy of Chief Maqoma.

According to court papers, it is the first time the Amahlathi have had a chief imposed on them since the Ciskei regime imposed Maqoma on them in 1982.

The committee, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, will argue in the Bhisho High Court today that they arrived in the area in the 1850s.

They had no chief but governed themselves through a system of elected chairpersons and had continued to practise this customary law.

However, in 1982, President Lennox Sebe of the then Ciskei created a chieftainship over the area and installed Maqoma as chief.

According to the LRC, the community ignored this new development until the position disappeared in about 2000.

However, in 2005, with the promulgation of the Eastern Cape Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, Maqoma reasserted his authority over the area and even attempted to take over the pending restitution claims that individual Amahlathi villages had lodged in 1998.

The Amahlathi people lodged a complaint with the commission, which ruled that an antecedent of Maqoma had authority over the area before the Amahlathi people arrived there.

The community is asking the court to set aside the decision to confirm Maqoma’s chieftaincy, and to order that the area cannot be placed under the authority of a chief as long as it is inconsistent with the customary law of the people who live there.

LRC communications officer Claire Martens yesterday confirmed that while premier Phumulo Masualle and the commission initially opposed the application, they had withdrawn their opposition and indicated they would abide by the court’s decision.