Cape Town - The heritage-rich community of Ebenhaezer on the West Coast is poised to break the land claims logjam in the Western Cape with the first phase of the biggest claim in the province, valued at R350 million, set to be celebrated by approximately 1 700 beneficiaries in June.
The hand-over of the title deeds for land comprising more than 4 000ha to the Ebenhaezer Communal Property Association has been welcomed as a “a victory of faith and steadfastness” by the community.
Land claims expert Ron Martin said the community was originally dispossessed of the land in 1925, through the promulgation of the Ebenezer Exchange of Land Act, (Act 14 of 1925). “They were then forcefully relocated to a much smaller portion of alternate land north of Olifantsdrift and between Olifantsdrift and Doornkraal. Later expropriations through water taxes (imposed in terms of the Olifants River Irrigation Works Act, 1917) gradually eroded their access to these portions as well.”
The area of the claim comprises prime agricultural land, including numerous lush, highly profitable vineyards and some state-owned land.
“After many years of frustration with the... claim which we registered in 1996, there is finally a turnaround and there is now renewed optimism and hope among our people that the fight of the last 19 years has not been in vain,” said William Fortuin, chairman of the Ebenhaezer Communal Property Association. He told Weekend Argus his community was ”working furiously to ensure that the fruits of a long and intense struggle for justice and restitution begin a new chapter of self-reliance, dignity that will ensure a future for generations to come”.
He said the turning point had come with the signing of an agreement with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform on December 12 last year. In terms of that agreement, the state is committed to put up R200m to buy the farms located of the land from which the community was dispossessed and a further R200m land for development.
Fortuin said since the signing of the agreement, the Communal Property Association had put together a long-term sustainable development plan, to ensure that the community was able to realise the full benefit of their claim.
“The development plan we have drawn up covers numerous aspects, which is aimed at ensuring that this community will be fully self-sufficient from 2019 onwards.
“This plan... premised on transparency, comprises all the critical aspects including administrative support and development, skills transfer and development, administrative support and development, proper training for students and accountability to the community,” he said.
He said that the community’s assets would be administered by the Ebenhaezer Development Trust, to which trustees would be appointed on Monday.
One important feature of the Ebenhaezer land claim is that the claimants refused to settle for the R20m they were originally offered.
Fortuin believes it is this type of sturdiness that has helped his people prevail.
“What I can say is that we kept our focus, we refused to go for a short-term solution soldiered through in spite of all our problems to secure a future for our children.”
He noted that they had now come full circle, from when the entire area was under the custody of Khoi chief Andries Loewies, whose authority over the area was recognised as early as 1810 by colonial authorities, which later proclaimed the area a “Hottentot reservation.”
This example has inspired numerous other Khoi and San to press forward with their claims.
Martin, saluted the Ebenhaezer community, stating that “the land restoration project at the Ebenezer Mission Station is a brilliant example of the use of the analysis of the written historical record, heritage practice and oral tradition in the process of authenticating a land claim for the descendants of the Khoi and Boesman”.
“This settlement has all the qualities of becoming sustainable and self-sufficient, in that the area encompasses all the attributes of a modern-day Eden with its well-drained, fertile soil, proximity to rich marine resources and a diligent, hard-working populace.”
Weekend Argus