Page 55 - Litigating Land and Housing in South Africa: Lessons and Reflections

Figure 12: Map of the Stockenstrom Treaty System
LITIGATING LAND AND AND AND HOUSING IN IN IN SOUTH AFRICA  LESSONS AND AND AND REFLECTIONS
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the the the the present-day Prudhoe community Even though they they were now living on
on
land annexed by the the the the the the British they they continued to to observe their customs and and fall under the the the the the leadership of four headman as the the the the the the population grew over the the the the the next 120 years The Mazizini on
on
the the the the the other hand were not forced off their lands by war and and and and remained on
the the the land land land land they still currently occupy which is slightly inland That land land land land was was eventually declared to to be tribal authority land land land and and and and and was was granted to to the Mazizini Chiefs named Msutu Dabi and and and Njokweni During the the the late 1970s and early 1980s the the the South African government created the the the the the nominally independent “Ciskei” to to further its apartheid agenda of of forcing black people to to to live separately from the the the the the rest of of the the the the the country Many white farms farms were expropriated to to make way for for the the the the “homeland” including those farms farms that form the the the the main subject of of this dispute and and where the the the the remnants of of the the the the amaGqunukwebe amaGqunukwebe had lived As white farmers left the the the amaGqunukwebe amaGqunukwebe farm farm farm farm workers were able to take full control of the the farms and farmed them independently for more more than than 10 10 years But in the late 1980s more more than than 100 families were forcibly removed from those farms by the Ciskei government ostensibly to make way for large-scale state controlled agricultural developments which never materialised The families were dumped on
a a a a a a a a a vacant piece of land called “Prudhoe farm” and and received no no compensation from the the the former Ciskei government nor as- sistance to rebuild their lives there 140 years after being brutally removed by the the the the the the British during the the the the “War of the the the the Axe” the the the the pastoral community was again upended As the Prudhoe community tried to regroup and and rebuild on
a a a a a a a small piece of land with virtually no space for for agri- culture South Africa itself transformed in ways that few had predicted The first democratic elections were held in in 1994 and a a a a a a priority piece of legisla- tion
tion
was swiftly passed in in in 1996 (the Restitution Act) to to begin the the the process of of undoing the the country’s history of of racially motivated land dispossession that was so painfully illustrated by the the the story of the the the Prudhoe Prudhoe people Despite both the the the Prudhoe Prudhoe and and and Mazizini communities lodging land claims the Regional Land Claims Commission – tasked with investigating the the the validity of the the the claims and making recommendations to the the the