More than 100 land claimants from George have received R13 million from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in what has been described as the largest community land claim in the Southern Cape.
The 122 families made restitution claims for loss of tenancy rights, residential rights and agricultural rights after they were forced off their land in Lawaaikamp between 1950 and 1986.
During the ceremony at the Conville Community Hall in George on Saturday, Deputy Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha said no amount of compensation could erase the pain caused by forced removals.
“However, as we strive to become a better government, I can only urge you to embrace the restitution programme as a form of reconciliation. It is regrettable that in this era of our democracy I am meeting you at your refugee homes because you were forcefully removed from your ancestral land,” he said.
The Commission on Restitution of Land Claims says R86 638 521.00 was paid for the individual claims of phases one to three.
It said the R13535534.00 for 122 households awarded at the weekend formed part of phase 4, totalling the entire claim to R100174055.00, the largest amount ever paid to a restitution project for the Eden District Municipality in the Western Cape.
Most claimants had acquired the properties at the time as farm tenants, tenants in municipal houses and residents at informal settlements.
The municipality as the owner and perpetrator of eviction used its prerogative to displace black and coloured people and revoke the community’s rights as tenants, residents and farmers.
The claim was formally condoned as Lawaaikamp Community Claim in February 2009.
The commission said all dispossessed persons who (1233) could be reached and who co-operated with the verification process were assisted.
Skwatsha said the department was “also responding to national programmes that seek to alleviate poverty. Please do not squander this money as you have been waiting so long to get it!”