A township obliterates a rural
Skhosana was born in 1951 in Olifantsfontein, a settlement some 6km to the east of his grandfather Somkhambeni’s homestead. His father had moved to Olifantsfontein — forced to leave after a dispute with the farm owner. But 1950s South Africa was chaotic.
The National Party, having won the 1948 general election (in which the of black African majority was prohibited from participating), began implementing its grand scheme of racial segregation known as apartheid.
In April 1950, Parliament passed the Group Areas Act, a notorious piece of legislation that sought to push black Africans and other nonwhite races further away from the cities into racially segregated townships and suburbs. Settlements like Olifantsfontein, where Skhosana was born, were targeted for total destruction by the authorities.
In 1964, Skhosana and his family found themselves back in Endulwini, not far from where their forebears had lived for generations as farmers, but now dumped in a soulless zinc shack with a bare floor.
From being owners of a little bit of land in Olifantsfontein, they were now, again, merely tenants on government land. “We left everything [behind]. Our chickens, cattle, everything,” he says about their removal.
The removals were harsh, inhumane, heartless and barbaric. Residents would be surprised by bulldozers tearing down their homes while government trucks, escorted by armed police, roared outside, waiting to be loaded with whatever items they could salvage.
They were given no time to gather their belongings. The state machinery wanted them off the land. Some families like Skhosana’s managed to salvage the zinc sheets they had used as a roof. These later came in handy at their new location, where they used them to extend the little shack allocated to them.
Rude and impatient government authorities then took down the names of all who lived at the new address and allocated each family a metal bucket to be used as a toilet. And so began life in the new settlement that grew into what is Tembisa.
“This was a bush here, all around here there were lots of trees. If it was not for the forced removals, we would still be living here on my grandfather’s farm. I was still young when the removals happened. But it wasn’t right. It was bad,” says Skhosana.
The South African History Archive notes that Tembisa was established in 1957 on a farm originally owned by Mr JHM Meyer and Mrs MWZ van Wyk and that the land was purchased at R3.52 a hectare with funding from the National Housing Commission and government loans.
It became a new home to victims of forced removals from areas east of Johannesburg. These included the settlements and townships of Olifantsfontein, Sterkfontein, Verwoerdburg, Irene, Six Mile, Edenvale, Witfontein, Kempton Park, Modderfontein, Mooifontein and Alexandra.
It grew from a township of a few hundred houses to a population of more than 460000 in the 2011 census.
In 1996 Skhosana lodged a claim under the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act for the land his parents were forcibly removed from in Olifantsfontein. The claim was settled in 2009 and he was paid R60 000. He is also planning to lodge a claim for this land in Tembisa.
In Olifantsfontein on a weekday afternoon, Skhosana, Godfrey Thobejane and Norman Bhuda walk carefully among graves located on a thicket behind a printing factory. The three are members of the Tembisa Land Claims Forum, which helped claimants to understand the process and prepared them for the application process with the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights.
Thobejane, who lives in Masemong section, was born in Olifantsfontein in 1957. The following year his family was forcibly removed to Tembisa. In 1996 his family lodged a claim which was successfully settled in 2007.
The land from which they were removed is now part of the thriving industrial area known by the area’s old name, Olifantsfontein. After more than 40 years of living and establishing their roots in Tembisa, none of the family was interested in going back to the land of their ancestors. They settled for the once-off R60 000 cash settlement instead.
The money was shared equally between Thobejane, his three brothers and four sisters. In the end each one’s share was just R7500 — for the loss of their ancestral land, the breakup of their homestead, the pain, suffering and emotional trauma caused by their forced relocation.
Thobejane, a bearded, silverhaired, jolly man with a sense of humour, shakes his head furiously when asked why the family did not opt for the land instead of the measly cash payout.
Although his family’s roots are in Olifantsfontein and he was born there, home to him remains Tembisa. He was born in 1957, the same year the apartheid government established the township.
It was in the streets of the township that he was schooled and politicised during the 1976 student uprising, during which he confesses he was part of a group of students that set alight state offices.
“I came here when I was a toddler. I don’t remember anything from Olifantsfontein,” says Thobejane.
In Moyeni section, Hendrik Jiyane is preparing to reclaim the land once owned by his grandfather, whose name was also Hendrik. He was ignorant about the process of lodging a claim and missed the December 31 1998 deadline.
In June 2014 President Jacob Zuma signed an amendment of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, paving the way for people to submit new claims from July of that year. However, in July last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the amendment was invalid, on the grounds that Parliament failed to allow for proper consultation before passing the law.
The court further ruled that no new claims could be processed until those submitted before the 1998 deadline were finalised. This means people like Jiyane face another long wait. Skhosana’s second claim — for his grandfather’s farm — must also wait.
Jiyane’s grandfather owned a large portion of land in what is now part of Jiyane section. The land is now a residential area comprising old-style township matchbox houses, stylish revamped houses, bonded houses, shops, schools and taverns.