Family forced to sell whites-only land, court told

THE validity of a city family’s claim to a prime Constantia property was questioned in the Land Claims Court yesterday.

The Sadien family are locked in a court battle for restitution of Sillery Farm, a multimillion-rand property along Constantia Road that has a potential value of R134 million.

However, the claim is opposed by the Badenhorst family, who bought the farm from the Sadiens some 50 years ago. They, along with the company in whose name the land is registered, now plan to build an upmarket housing estate there.

The claimants allege that their relatives were forced to sell the farm because the area was declared “whites only” under the Group Areas Act, and that they did not get fair value for their land.

However, the legal team for the respondents – Hein Badenhorst, Jazz Spirit 12 (Pty) Ltd and Yamiv (Pty) Ltd – claimed that at the time Sillery Farm was dispossessed in 1963, the Sadien family had not been compelled to sell the property.

Advocate Joe van der Westhuizen, SC, said the racially discriminatory proclamation that would have forced them off the farm had only been

They plan to build upmarket housing estate there

introduced in 1964. In addition, the Sadien family still had possession of other nearby properties well after the sale of Sillery, said Van der Westhuizen.

In a bid to confirm these dates, he sought to introduce historic property documents to the court.

“One has to look at the date that the property was sold to determine the validity of the claim; that it was a result of this law,” he said.

However, Van der Westhuizen’s introduction of these documents raised the ire of the claimants’ legal team, Joel Krige and Donald Jacobs, SC.

Jacobs said he and Krige had already closed their case and that questions relating to these documents had not been put to their witnesses.

“We’re surely prejudiced to deal with these documents where we’ve already closed our case… If this kind of evidence is allowed to be introduced, then we will have to re-open our case,” he said.

Acting Judge Mokotedi Mpshe – replacing Land Claims Court Judge President Fikile Bam, who died in December – warned Van der Westhuizen that without the consent of the claimants’ lawyers, the documents could not be introduced at this stage unless another way was found to introduce the information contained in the documents.

Sillery Farm was originally bought by Dout Sadien in 1902.

His five sons bought the property from his estate in 1958 for £11 000, which amounted to about R22 000 at the time.

According the Sadiens’ case, the family was forced, as a result of the Group Areas Act, to sell the land just a few years later. They sold it to Jacob Badenhorst, a manager at Groot Constantia, for R13 550 – R8 450 less than what the sons paid for it.

Two of Dout Sadien’s direct descendants, Ebrahiem and Sedick Sadien, took the claim to court, with the backing of the regional Land Claims Commission.

The Badenhorsts had already started development of their housing estate, but were ordered to stop when the claimants secured an interdict against them two years ago.

The trial will continue today.