Major legal step forward for 22-year-long land claim for 26 farms

The Prudhoe community might finally get their land back, including the Fish River Sun hotel, after a 22-year battle made worse by what some believe was shocking obfuscation and incompetence by the Restitution of Land Rights Commission (RLRC).

The Supreme Court of Appeal this week dismissed the appeal of the Mazizini community, which contested the Prudhoe claim to 26 farms, including the land on which the Fish River Sun and golf course lies.

This judgment may finally remove the last obstacle to the 300 households making up the Prudhoe community being allowed to move back on to the land where their ancestors once farmed, lived and buried their dead.

The two-decade battle has taken so long that 109 of the 124 original heads of households have died, many in extreme poverty, said the Legal Resources Centre, which acted on their behalf.

SCA judge Nambitha Dambuza and acting judge Phineas Mojapelo with judges Malcolm Wallis, Boissie Mbha and acting judge Jannie Eksteen agreeing described the tortuous history.

The Prudhoe Community first lodged their claim under the Restitution of Land Rights Act in 1998. They wanted restoration of the 26 farms between the Fish and Mpekweni rivers from which they were brutally removed by the Ciskei government in the late 1980s, ostensibly to make way for large-scale agricultural development which never materialised.

They were dumped on a vacant piece of land called “Prudhoe farm” with no compensation or assistance from the Ciskei government.

Their claim for the 26 farms intersected that of two other claimants, the Tharfield and Mazizini communities, who together were claiming some 85 farms covering 43,700ha.

In 2010 the Land Claims Court (LCC) awarded much of the land, including the Fish River Sun, to the Mazizini community. This was because the

RLRC had failed to draw to the courts attention the fact that there’ were competing claims. As a result, in 2011 the SCA set aside the decision and ordered that the process start all over again, taking into account all the claims.

The commission’s repeated failure to inform affected parties including dozens of farmers whose land was under claim

delayed the matter until about 2016. This time, with the full facts before it, the LCC finally awarded the 26 farms to the Prudhoe community.

Inexplicably, both the Mazizini community and then-land reform minister Maite NkoanaMashabane sought leave to appeal the decision. The minister did so on behalf of one of dozens of farmers who stood to lose their farms. The LCC dismissed the application for leave to appeal, saying the farmer in question had never contested the land claim in the first place.

It was at this point that the minister dropped out of the race. However, the Mazizini community successfully petitioned the SCA for leave to appeal.

But, this week, the SCA unequivocally found in favour of the Prudhoe community.

LRC attorney Cameron McConnachie said the SCA’s judgment exposed the commission’s unwavering and irrational support for the disingenuous claim of the Mazizini Community. He said land dispossession remained a blight on the country’s history.

“The failure to fix the system and realise land rights has been compounded by rampant state corruption and maladministration, which has decimated provincial land reform budgets, prioritised disingenuous land claims and ushered in the industrial sector’s access to land for profit. The vast majority of poor black South Africans continue to be denied security of tenure and the right to a sense of self-worth and dignity.”

Prudhoe community land committee chair Gladman Tom said they were “over the moon”. “We are getting old. We want to use that land before we all die. We want to use it for crops, livestock and tourism.”