Anc Fatcats Nobble 103-year-old Land Claimant

Vultures delay transfer to wrest rightful ownership from centenarian and his family.

- Jonathan Erasmus

THE LEGAL TRANSFER OF A PIECE OF land occupied by nine goats and a centenarian appears as if it is being deliberately and collusively delayed by a politically connected condom dealer, a parastatal chairman and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

A glance at the facts can only lead to the plausible explanation that the property owner and the department are waiting for the 103-year-old Zabalaza Mshengu to die.

Another explanation is old fashioned grand-level incompetence.

It is a most unequal battle.

This land-claim case is like no other. It is not complex at all. There is no dispute over whether Mshengu has a right to ownership of the land and there is no other third-party claimant on the land. The graves of his father, mother and children are on the property. He was born on the property on 11 January 1914.

Mshengu is a labour tenant which is defined as a person who worked on a farm in return for the right to live on the farm and instead of a salary, took a portion of land for themselves. He was officially declared a labour tenant in 2007 on the farm near Ashburton, outside Pietermaritzburg. But if he dies before the transfer, the farm owner may be legally entitled to evict his family within 12 months.

Mshengu lodged his claim for the five hectares before a 31 March 2001 cut-offdate in line with the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996 which was designed to give tenure to labour tenants. Only 22,000 claims were lodged countrywide.