Cape Town - The Elim community have been granted what they consider a victory in a matter that was heard in the Western Cape High Court concerning the rightful ownership of land.
The Moravian Church in South Africa approached the court for a resolution in the matter between the Overseers Council and the church.
The church sought direction from the court in respect of the Overseers Council being paid over R1.7 million from lease agreements between 2013 and 2019, which the church claimed they are entitled to as rightful owners of the land.
The church was represented by advocate Johan de Waal.
In response, the Elim community, represented by the Overseers Council, opposed the application and made a counterclaim to the court, saying they are the rightful owners who were previously dispossessed of the land.
These claims date back to the colonial period, when the rights of indigenous peoples who inhabited the land were disregarded.
Elim is a town in the Overberg district and was established as a mission station by the Moravian church in the 1800s.
The two parties yesterday came to an agreement that all proceedings would come to a halt in order for the community to set in motion a process to put together a fully-formulated case with regards to ownership.
This would require the community to argue in court with evidence from community members who have lived in Elim for generations and for experts to give evidence as to the heritage of Elim.
In its current form the church holds the title deed for the land in Elim, where residents are not in possession of any form of ownership. The residents pay a levy of R20-R150 to the Overseers Council because they do not pay rates and taxes.
The Overseers are also allowed to collect rent from subsistence farmers for lease agreements of agricultural land.
During proceedings, advocate Tanya Golden said that the community comprises mostly elderly people who are sometimes unable to pay the levies.
She also said that whatever money the Overseers Council gets from the community is ploughed back into the development of the town.
Outside the court, dozens of people gathered after travelling all the way from Elim to follow proceedings.
Overseers Council chairperson Pierre Apollis said they want the town in the hands of the people.
“The community decided that since the church is continuing with this autocratic style of ruling, we once and for all want clarity now on who the land belongs to. Our position is that the land has been there for all the years, we are the ones who have built it up to the small town that it is today and we want to be part of any management.
“We want to keep it the way it is, our place is a nice safe haven for everybody. We don’t have criminality, we manage our own town under the church, but now the church decided they want to make all the decisions and we say no more.
“The church claims that they own the land and we in good faith trusted them to be the custodians on behalf of the community, but now we are saying the church is keeping our mission stations captive by dictating.
“We’ve been trying to engage them since 2017, handing them memorandums, to engage and to talk about the issues, but they decided to come to court,” Apollis said.