Richtersveld belongs to people

2003-02-18 22:42

Bloemfontein - Government conceded on Tuesday in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein that the Richtersveld community on the West Coast retained ownership of their land after British annexation of the area in 1847.

Senior counsel Rudolph Hiemstra, for government, conceded before a full bench of appeal judges that the Richtersvelders remained the owners of their land in terms of both the indigenous and the European-imported Roman-Dutch law of the time when it was annexed to the neighbouring British Cape Colony.

Hiemstra's concession on Tuesday contradicted an earlier ruling by the Land Claims Court that the entire Richtersveld became crown land upon annexation in 1847 and that the Richtersveld people did not retain any rights to the particular land after annexation.

The Richtersveld community is reclaiming around 85 000ha of its ancestral land on the West Coast of South Africa, which is now registered in the name of government-owned diamond mine Alexkor.

Government earlier argued that it was entitled to transfer ownership of the claimed land to Alexkor during the 1920s because it was crown land belonging to government in terms of the former colonial power's Crown Lands Act.

No right

Hiemstra on Tuesday still held to the argument that the Richtersveld claim was not valid in terms of the Restitution Act because the Richtersvelders were not dispossessed as a result of racial discrimination.

Senior counsel Wim Trengrove, for the Richtersveld community, disputed this, arguing that it was assumed for decades that the Richtersveld people had no right to their land simply because they were an indigenous people.

The transfer of their land to Alexkor amounted to racist dispossession, whether lawful or unlawful at the time.

No legal machinery was available to the Richtersvelders to gain title to their land. They were rather required to convert their indigenous land ownership rights into ownership rights under the Roman Dutch law. This required that their land be surveyed and registered, a process they could not afford.

"Government recognised the ownership rights of white communities in terms of the Roman Dutch law, but ignored the indigenous land rights of black communities," Trengrove said on Tuesday.

Ownership in dispute

Judgment by the Appeal Court will now follow.

According to the government, a ruling in favour of the claimants may put the ownership of all colonised land in South Africa in dispute.

A ruling in favour of the Richtersvelders may also be followed by a claim against the privately owned Transhex diamond mine. Transhex is mining in terms of a lease agreement with government on around 40 000ha along the Orange River within the boundaries of the Richtersveld Reserve.

According to Floors Strauss, chair of the Richtersveld Communal Property Association, Transhex's lease agreement with government does not sufficiently favour the Richtersveld community. They want the agreement to be re-negotiated in consultation with the Richtersvelders.

The reserve comprises the eastern part of the area occupied by the Richtersvelders' forebears by the early 19th century. After alluvial diamonds were discovered along the West Coast, the community was gradually moved eastwards and ultimately confined to the reserve, where they still live today.

- SAPA