Royal council lays claim to 200 farms
One million hectares of farm land is in dispute
The Royal Council of Moletjie Moshate under Kgoshi Solomon Kgabo Moloto III is not giving up the fight to reclaim more than 200 farms consisting of more than one million hectares of land it claims it was dispossessed of by white settlers in the early 1900s.
Documents seen by the Sunday World show that the tribe lodged the land claim on November 24 1998, but the claim has not yet been finalised.
Chief Solomon Kgabo Moloto III lambasted the government for the snail’s pace in addressing land claims.
“We are still waiting for the government to address this matter.
“However, it has been for more than 30 years.
“We are of the view that this matter has been dragging for too long without progress.
“It can’t be correct that to this day we have been snubbed by government because the land is ours, therefore it must be returned to us as its legal owners.”
Bishop Apostle Solomon Sello Moloto, the head of land planning and legal services for chief Moloto’s administration, also blasted the government for using “divide-and-rule tactics” to cause more confusion around the issue of land.
“We are discontent with how we are being subjected to marginalisation after more than 20 years since we have lodged our land claims with more than 200 farms with more than one million hectares of land.
“We remain perplexed that the government has been entertaining individual claims, but failing to address claims by our tribal authority,” said Moloto.
He also said the Moletjie Tribal Authority had engaged with the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, who referred them to the department’s director-general, Mooketsa Ramasodi, however, the tortoise pace of the process has been the order of the day.” Both Didiza and Ramasodi were not available for comment.
The land claimed by the Moletjie community is in the Capricorn district municipality in Limpopo, with most of the land currently under the ownership of the national government, Polokwane local municipality and the Limpopo provincial government.
The Moloto family presides over Moletjie village. After the first democratic elections in 1994, two key pieces of legislation were developed to address the land issues. These were the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act and the 1997 Land Reform White Paper.
Moloto said some of their land was taken by the bantustan Lebowa government in 1986.
“They were transferred from tribal farms into state lands. We want our farms back ,” Moloto said.
Molatelo Senyatsi, a resident of Moletjie, said: “We are extremely disappointed with the ANC government for failing to correct the miscarriage of justice accelerated by white supremacists who stole our ancestors’ land. We deserve respect and justice.”
It can’t be that we have been snubbed by government, this land is ours