San farm saved - for now
2002-09-23 21:21
Kimberley - The Kalahari farm of the !Khomani San, which was to be auctioned this week to pay off debt, was saved after an out-of-court settlement was reached between government and the creditor on Monday.
Provincial land claims commissioner Sugar Ramakarane confirmed
that lawyers representing the Land Claims Commission and creditor
Attie Avenant had reached the settlement, putting the scheduled
sale of the farm Erin on Thursday "indefinitely" on hold.
He said the Land Claims Commission would approach the High Court in Kimberley on Friday "as a subsequent step". This may include a request to place the communal property association, in whose name Erin is registered, under administration.
Ramakarane did not want to disclose the nature of the settlement because it included confidentiality clauses.
He also did not disclose government's future plans for the
!Khomani San land reform project in the Kalahari, as it was
sub-judice pending Friday's High Court application.
Ramakarane did however say that the community would remain on
the farm, but that "it is not going to be business as usual".
The sustainable development of the six San farms on the border
of the Kgalagadi Park was not the responsibility of government
alone, he said. It should rather be a partnership initiative
between government and civil society.
Project co-ordinator Herman Festus of the
non-governmental-organisation Farm Africa in Kimberley told Sapa
that lack of a development plan had always been a stumbling block
in the !Khomani San project.
Farm Africa, a British-based organisation run with donor funds, now intends embarking on a process of developing a "participatory land use plan" for the !Khomani San.
Festus said this could take around six months.
Erin, on the border of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, is one of six Kalahari farms the government bought three years ago to hand over to the !Khomani San as part of its land reform programme. It was hailed as the only successful aboriginal land claim in Southern Africa.
According to Avenant, now a businessman, members of the !Khomani San's communal property association had accumulated debt of between R120 000 and R150 000, using the farm (one of three originally bought from Avenant to give to the San) as security.
The magistrate's court in Upington ordered on March 20 that Erin
be sold off to pay the debts.
- SAPA