Land claimants share R13,9 million in compesation

The Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner in the province handed R13,9 million to Mhinga-Xikundu claimants as financial compensation for loosing their land through apartheid forced removal.

The handing over ceremony was held at Magomani Primary School at Xikundu village in Malamulele on Saturday.

Each of the 132 households which were forcefully removed from their ancestral land by the apartheid government in 1969 received R105 837.

According to the communications manager in the Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner in the province, Avhashoni Magada, the community land claim has been approved for financial compensation as the land is not restorable.

“The amount allocated represents the full and final settlement of the community land claim lodge by Mr Risenga Samuel Chauke in December 1998,” said Magada.

He said the Community was dispossessed of its rights in land due to racially discriminatory laws and practices.

He added that ethnicity became a determining factor as to where people were to be moved. The Tsonga-speaking group was ordered to settle at Botsoleni and Magomani villages situated in the then Gazankulu homeland area, while the Venda-speaking group were transported by G.G trucks across the Luvhuvhu River to Lukalo and other villages that fell under the former Republic of Venda.

The Chief Director in the Office of the regional land claims commissioner in Limpopo, Tele Maphoto urged the claimants to use the money to improve lives in their families.

The land claimants, Njakanjaka Maluleke (81) and Mamayila Chauke (75) could not hide their excitement when Maphoto handed them their money vouchers.”The waiting is finally over. It’s like a dream come true,” said Chauke.