A rival claim for land is made by descendants of Smith family
The uMgungundlovu community in Mzamba is not the only group laying claim to the land where the Wild Coast Sun Resort and Casino is built. Another claim – which has been rejected – has been made by the coloured community, who live side by side with the uMgungundlovu community.
The Smiths are descendants of John Gordon Smith, who was born in Scotland but came to settle in SA in the 1800s. Smith later married the daughter of a Pondo chief, Faku Sigcawu. As part of the marriage deal, the Smiths claim, Chief Sigcawu gave the land to his daughter and son-in-law, who farmed the land and raised cattle in the land from the sea to about 16km inland.
The Smiths lay claim to the 750ha of natural bush between Umtamvuna and Mzamba with a view of the Indian Ocean. The current generation of Smiths showed
DM168 documents confirming that Gordon Smith paid taxes for the land until he died in September 1910. His descendants continued to pay taxes until the 1950s.
Grace Smith-Smale (78) is the fourth generation of the Smith clan. She said theirs is the only legitimate claim because the members of the uMgungundlovu community only settled in the area after the 1960s.
“We have proof that this land is ours and we got plans and documentary proof that our forefathers paid taxes for this land,” she said.
Sharmane Underhill (67), also a descendant, said their community felt insulted that their claim remained unresolved.
Desiree Smith (54) is another descendant who is also on the steering committee handling the land claim. She said in 1998 the Smiths lodged a land claim with the Eastern Cape land claim commission before the 1998 land claim deadline, but had heard nothing further.
“We have given the land claim commission all the documentary proof that this land belonged to our great-grandmother and great-grandfather. We have been trying to get information – even our lawyer has tried – but they are giving us a runaround.”
The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights (CRLR) admits that the Smiths lodged their land claim in the 1990s, but said they did not provide additional information and therefore their claim was dismissed.
Nomfundo Ntloko-Gobodo, chief land claim commissioner, said: “The Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner: Eastern Cape has written to the family on a few occasions, initially to request further information to support their claim and later to inform them that their claim was dismissed because it did not meet the requirements of Section 2(1) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994. To this end our investigation findings show that the Smith family dispossession occurred prior to 19 June 1913.
She said some Smith family members were part of the CPA and had received compensation via that community claim.
“In a case where a land claim is dismissed by the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, a claimant may approach the Land Claims Court for a review of our decision. The uMgungundlovu Community land claim was referred to court and was settled as part of a court-ordered settlement. The Smith family was aware of this court case and could have at any time contested the settlement of the claim in the Land Claims Court,” Ntloko-Gobodo said.
Adrian Krige, the lawyer representing the Smith family, said the Land Claims Commission erred in rejecting and deregistering the claims without duly considering all the evidence available.
He added that the Smiths’ written representations to the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights detailed extensively the background of the land claim from the allocation of about 6,000 hectares of land to John Gordon Smith by Chief Faku of the amaPondo prior to the Chief’s death in 1867 to the Smith family’s dispossession and the submission of the land claim by Mr W Smith. “Our client shall be pursuing its claim in the appropriate forums including, inter alia, referring the matter to the Land Claims Court,” Krige said in a statement.