Land invasions raised at traditional leaders’ sitting
MBOMBELA - The provincial House of Traditional Leaders had its official opening earlier this month.
This annual sitting was held at the Mpumalanga Legislature in Mbombela.
Premier Refilwe MtshweniTsipane addressed the critical issue around illegal land invasions. “Much work has been done to set up mechanisms to stop this uncontrollable scourge. Land invasions are criminal acts and must be curbed with the full might of the law.”
The MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Busi Shiba, said local government was concerned about increasing incidents of land invasions and disputes in the province. She urged the tribal councillors/headsmen to respect the traditional leaders.
According to Shiba, when the public illegally occupy land, they demand services like electricity, water and road infrastructure.
“We know that the traditional leaders would never allow the public to occupy an area illegally. The public needs to wait for the government, because there is a law that guides us. The law says that we need to first provide services. It is difficult to start providing services after the community have already occupied an area. We are pleading with them to respect the municipality, traditional leaders and government,” she said.
Shiba added that some people who are hosting cultural activities, such as initiation schools, have not been given permission to do so. “Before they start they have to complete a risk assessment; we need to check that. Even the Department of Health is not aware of these initiations having started. We work together with health when it comes to issues of Ingoma (initiation schools).”
The chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders, Inkosi Sandile Ngomane, said the traditional leaders have been devastated by Covid-19. “We stopped the Ingoma practices.” Ngomane said they were considering meeting with the premier to restart these.