Land claim good news

IT WAS good to hear that the land in Mooiplaas, where there are two playing fields and the Freitag family shop in Soto village, is finally being claimed by its rightful owners.

The land in question belonged to the Dikisi, Mkhohlwa, Batyi, Ntame and Mabuya families.

That land was forcefully taken from them by the apartheid government. At the time the family residing next to it was the Sabbagh family.

The Sabbagh family went to my late grandfather (Magwangqana Philani) when he was still a senior headman in Soto village and asked for a piece of land opposite the Nyara and Haga Haga turn-off to build a shop. My late grandfather gave them that land after consulting the Soto community. The Sabbagh family at the time had a shop at the cuttings of Magrangxeni not far from Kwenxura river. The purpose for their move was business – as that area was near to many villages.

Those families were forcefully removed after a letter to my late grandfather from the authorities.

I remember my late grandfather telling me the sad story. He said my great-grandfather was so miserable about leaving his home he could not hold back his tears, asking “where will they stay?”

Eventually all the aforementioned families went to stay in Soto village except my great-grandfather.

He went to Tobiyase, where he died a poor man, whose only asset had been ripped off by a brutal and evil regime. As the Mkhohlwa family we need that land. Our cattle have been hungry for too long.

I was told the land opposite the Soto rugby field belonged to the Tshifothi family, who resided at Kwasithungu village. I was told they suffered the same evil as my great-grandfather.

The land is coming, and the sorrow and tears of our ancestors will finally be soothed. The land is coming and what was taken by force should come free. Expropriation without compensation will suit this course. — Masixole Philani, via e-mail