Claimants want a fifth of Gauteng
Different groups in land claim tussle
A group of Gauteng residents has lodged a claim for more than a fifth of the province’s land area.
Officially, they want more than 400 000 hectares, from Heidelberg in the south east of the province, to the area along the Vereeniging-Potchefstroom Road in the southwest of Gauteng, as well as parts of Johannesburg south.
However, the man behind the claim, self-styled king Themba Mazibuko, told Sowetan yesterday they want land from Potchefstroom to Tshwane.
A Rural Development and Land Reform Department audit showed that Gauteng’s total land area was just below 1.82million hectares.
Mazibuko said the land known as Wildebeesfontein included the Vaal, East and West Rand, Soweto, central Johannesburg, Lenasia, Eldorado Park, Eikenhof, Meyerton, De Deur, Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Heidelberg.
He was also dismissive of those who claim Gauteng had no traditional leaders, saying he was recognised at a R10-million ceremony in Tshwane.
Mazibuko’s Wildebeesfontein and Evaton Community Organisation (Weco) are in dispute with another community group that seeks the Land Claims Court to interdict Weco from proceeding with their claim.
Weco described the other claimants as “imposters”.
Mazibuko said their opponents had already received R48million for an earlier land claim.
The other groups – the Wildebeesfontein Evaton Community Association and the Wildebeesfontein Community Claimants – want Weco prevented from acting as a representative of land claimants in the south of Gauteng.
Today, Weco is applying to the Land Claims Court to intervene in the matter.
The Gauteng south land claim also included land already claimed by the Bakwena Ba Mare a Phogole community through a 1995 application.
The Bakwena Ba Mare a Phogole have also claimed large parts of Johannesburg South, Ekurhuleni, Midvaal and the Sedibeng municipalities where they were evicted under apartheid and discriminatory laws in the mid-1900s.