SEDIBENG.- When two elephants fight, it is indeed the grass that suffers. In the case between Weldessfontein Evaton Community Organisation (WECO) and Wildebeesfontein Evaton Community Association (WECA), the land is suffering.
Sedibeng Ster reported last week that WECO members came to its offices stating to have won a case of a land claim that has been going on for years and warned those members of the community they said have been selling land illegally that a case has been opened against them and that investigations are undergoing.
Last Friday the members of another organisation,WECA, also stormed the offices of this newspaper claiming to be the rightful custodians of the land. Speaking to Sedibeng Ster the spokesperson of the group, Silwane Kubekha says that the WECO members do not have a leg to stand on as far as the land claim is concerned as they, WECA, are the rightful claimants.
“The community should not be fooled, these are people that are disgruntled as they originate from us (WECA) and they have obtained those documents that they showed to you fraudulently. We have documents as requested by your article to prove that we are the legitimate claimants of the Widebeesfontein land, people must not be fooled,” Kubekha says.
He adds that the other party (WECO) are the ones that should be arrested for continuously lying and defrauding the community.
“WECO as an organisation was registered in 2004 while the land claims process of registartion was closed in 1998 now you tell us who is fooling who here,” say the other members of WECA. WECO members had last week said that they are just awaiting investigations into claims that had been made on the land so that they can continue with the process of opening a ‘Trust Fund’ that will be administered by a committee elected by the members of the community. They had also mentioned that there was a provisional report that had showed them (WECO) as victors as claimants of the Wildebeefontein land.
The land in dispute is said to include the whole of Sedibeng (Sharpeville, Sebokeng, Evaton, Bophelong, Boipatong etc), Soweto to as far as Heidelberg. WECA will hold a meeting this Sunday, July 26 at the Zone 7 stadium to apparently clarify this fracas.
