MATAFFIN – This community was up in arms last weekend, protesting against land being illegally sold, allegedly by a certain Nkosi posing as the rightful owner and chief of Woodhouse 308JT.
On Saturday about 400 residents, mostly dressed in ANC T-shirts, supported by members of the SACP, the ANC Youth League and representatives of Mataffin Trust, held a peaceful march to Nkosi’s residence to engage with him in a community meeting.
They demanded that he stopped his illegal acts of selling land to the invaders. “We also demand that he leaves the area and go back to where he comes from. He came here and claims he is the prince and the land belongs to his family, but has no proof,” said members of the community.
According to Mr Terry Mdluli of Mdluli Trust, initially it handed over land to the community, but to its surprise it was now allegedly sold by Nkosi who posed as the owner of the land. “On Saturday we went to him to clarify that the land worth millions of rand was given to the community by the Mdluli Trust as the Mdlulis claimed and received the land on December 13, 2003 .
“We spoke to Nkosi to stop selling the land as it belongs to the community. We also advised him to wait for the findings of the Land Claims Commissioner if he has claims to that land,” he said.
According to Mdluli, historically, Sphezi Nkosi was a servant of Matsafeni and he was married to Matsafeni granddaughter, he was the son in law to Mtimu Mdluli, Mtimu is Matsafeni Mdluli son, and Sphezi arrived at Matsafeni to work for Hall’s our Great Grand Father Matsafeni Mdluli was already killed. “Sthezi bekangumkhwenyana waka Mdluli, angeke ke kwenteke kutsi bese ngumnikati wehlaba,” he explained.
A few months ago, Mpumalanga News reported that the same Nkosi called a meeting to address the people who had allegedly invaded the area, assuring them not to worry about anything because his family owned the land. Some of the invaders who attended the meeting said, “He told us the land belongs to him and we must not move.
“He even urged us to contribute funds so we as a community can be able to pay our legal representative in court opposing the municipality’s move to evict the invaders,” said an anonymous source who wanted to protect his identity. It was alleged that they paid R1 000 each for the fees of the legal representative.”
Contrary to the claims made by the so-called chief, the legal claimants of the land, Woodhouse 308 JT, also the Nkosi family distanced themselves from the illegal selling of land at Mataffin and the recent community meeting in the area.
“We would like to distance ourselves from the so-called Nkosi family group of individuals who recently held a meeting with the community. We would like to have it on record that these individuals do not represent the legitimate Nkosi family,”
said Mr Moses Nkosi, a member of the legitimate one.