Land claim update in Kanyamazane
People who are supposed to come forward and claim are not doing so with proper documents
KANYAMAZANE – The elderly of this small community are tired of empty promises with no delivery and are now crying out to the premier for help.
Former residents of Mbombela that were forcefully removed by the apartheid era government, held a meeting on September 22 led by Mr Bernard Mashego. The meeting was about what steps are needed to be taken for them to receive the moneys owed and promised to them by the Department of Land Affairs.
It has been long since this whole process has been on the table and debated by the elderly and Mr Sam Langa, the Chief Director Land Affairs.
For some time the elderly have been feeling cheated and have been complaining about the delaying tactics they are given when meetings are called for them to attend.
“We have had more than enough of waiting, to no avail. The months that have passed by while we were told story after story, but what we need still has not come to us. We are made to feel like we are stealing this money when it is rightfully ours and since nobody else has come to our rescue on this day forth, we have decided to call on the premier to come meet with us on October 6 so we can voice our concerns to him in the hope that he will help us,” said Mashego.
“There is a huge crisis that is causing this major blockage that has been standing on the way of money to be released to you. One of these crises is the few people that have brought claims more than once using illegal documents and managed to fill the system and it paid them off, but they are still in the line as people who have not yet claimed,” said Mr Martin Fakude, a member of the board chosen to deal with land claims issues.
He continued and said: “Another thing that is causing this crisis is that people who are supposed to come forward and claim are not doing so with proper documents, stating that they used to occupy a certain house before the removals, it has been stated before that if legal papers and proof are not produced to Land Affairs, that claim will not be processed.”
Some of the elderly threaten to march to government offices so they can be heard since they feel they have done all they could and if their cries still fall on deaf ears, they will have n o choice but to do so.
