Pensioner’s hopes for his promised land turn to dust
Ancestral home feels like another dumping ground
MSIBOTI Magaba’s farming days are over. He ploughed his last field three years ago, at the age of 101, but injured his legs in a fall and since then has had to use a wheelchair.
Now 104, all he wants is some chickens to farm at his small home near Humansdorp.
“If I get my money I will buy chickens. Or cows,” he said.
Magaba embodies the contradictions of South Africa’s land reform efforts. Born before the 1913 Land Act, he was already a pensioner when the apartheid government dumped him in the artificially created Republic of Ciskei.
He returned to his ancestral land thanks to a 1994 landmark court judgment that restored a large chunk of land belonging to the Mfengu clan.
But rather than enjoy his twilight years as a successful farmer, Magaba now lives in an Mfengu reserve, near the Eastern Cape-Western Cape border. It is owned by a trust appointed to manage communal land.
He and his wife are happy to be out of the Ciskei, but have mixed feelings about where they have ended up. The fields adjoining their house are mostly empty and their neighbours have gone in search of “proper jobs” on nearby farms or towns.
“My dream was to be a stock farmer,” he said, sitting on an old sofa and leaning on a knobkerrie. “We had a lot of cows before we were moved to Keiskammahoek [in the Ciskei]. I lost almost everything. I am very sad about the years I spent there.”
His was one of the first com-
LOST GROUND: Msiboti Magaba, who is 104 years old, still has his heart set on owning a few cows
My heart wants to go farming, but my body can’t anymore
munities to have land rights restored after the repeal of apartheid laws, but the AmaMfengu have battled in the new South Africa. The 8 800ha returned to them in 1994 was not the promised land and the community lodged a further claim in 1998, which covers as many as 19 farms in the dairy-producing Tsitsikamma area. This claim has all but disappeared in a labyrinth of bureaucracy.
On the one hand the AmaMfengu’s land claim is a rare success story, on the other an illustration of the pitfalls of land reform. The community farming projects were largely unsuccessful and the Mfengu reserve near Clarkson did not develop into a sustainable settlement.
A study completed in 2000 found that, despite state investment of about R100 000 per family, the project had failed to provide tangible benefits.
Nor do future prospects look brighter. The community land claim, lodged in the name of the Tsitsikamma Development Trust, is hampered by the same challenges facing thousands of other claims: a turnover of staff in the Land Claims Commission, infighting in claimant communities and a shortage of land.
In many cases there is historical confusion over community claims — and many of the senior citizens who could confirm ties to the land have died.
There are also rival claims, a problem likely to come to the fore during the next round, which is aimed at people dispossessed before the 1913 Land Act — such as the Khoisan. Separating one claim from another will be more an act of faith than historical certainty.
The new five-year window for new claims ends in June 2019.
Raymond Duna, a spokesman for the Tsitsikamma Development Trust, said delays in finalising outstanding claims were making claims harder to decipher.
“When we asked [the Land Claims Commission] in the initial stages what to do if there are no documents for a certain community, they said they would be sending people to do the oral investigation. But that never happened. Our worry is that our elders keep on dying.”
Zilindile Blouw, chairman of the Tsitsikamma Development Trust, said: “As it stands now our people have become very impatient.”
Commercial farmers take a different view.
“Turning these properties over to communities is a recipe for dismantling the viability of the farming unit,” said Eastern Cape Agricultural Union president Ernest Pringle.
“The interference with people’s property rights is something you can’t ignore — suddenly your property has a land claim on it and there is a question around how marketable it is, and you have to get permission to sell it.”
Figures released this week by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform show that the vast majority of new land claimants have opted for money.
Since land reform began there have been more than 80 000 land claims.
Eastern Cape chief director of Land Restitution Support, Zukile Pityi, said a team had been appointed to finalise the AmaMfengu claim, which incorporates 15 forestry farms and 19 privately owned dairy farms.
Magaba said he believed his waiting would not be in vain — although he doubted he would be strong enough to return to his fields once the claim was settled.
“My heart wants to go farming,” he said, “but my body can’t anymore.” Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za