'R1 land' battle heads to court

2008-05-10 22:00

Gcina Ntsaluba

Nelspruit - The battle for ownership of Mpumalanga's R1bn 2010 soccer stadium and 118 hectares of neighbouring land goes to court on Tuesday.

The contentious stadium is being built on agricultural land that was originally granted to the Matsafeni farm worker community as part of a land claim settlement in 2003.

Developers plan to use the stadium as the centre piece for an entirely new sports, entertainment, and upmarket residential precinct serving the fast-growing capital city - with the overall development estimated to be worth over R3bn.

Government, however, illegally usurped the land in 2007, when it "bought" it for just R1 without any of the necessary approvals from the Matsafeni beneficiaries, the Land Claims Commission, or the national minister of land affairs.

Instead, government immediately moved to try forcibly relocate the Matsafeni residents to an alternate site 25km outside town and far away from their jobs, without any schools or other public facilities that they currently enjoy.

The deal has been declared irregular by an independent forensic audit commissioned by Nelspruit's Mbombela local municipality, as well as by Land Affairs Mminister Lulama Xingwana.

Mpumalanga's MEC for agriculture and land affairs, Dinah Pule, has, however, aligned herself with the rogue Matsafeni Trust board directors who originally approved the R1 sale and clashed with the international human rights lawyer, Richard Spoor, appointed by 883 of the Matsafeni's 1 250 families.

Spoor was threatened with physical violence at a meeting of the trust last weekend, before being ejected from a meeting at which it voted to contest a legal challenge against the sale and the trustees.

Illegitimate trustees?

"We view the trustees as illegitimate. They have failed to convene annual general meetings, have failed to account for income of over R20m earned by the trust, and sold our ancestral land without a legal mandate and in clear violation of the trust deed and of national regulations governing the disposal of land acquired through a land claim," explains Matsafeni community coordinator, Vuyisile Mdluli.

"We are therefore going to court on Tuesday to have the trustees removed from their positions."

Mdluli and Spoor also this week both voiced concern at Pule's growing role in the dispute, warning that her support for the trustees was alienating the beneficiaries and hardening their attitudes against the province's 2010 World Cup initiative.

"We are keen to find an amicable solution that does not threaten the province's 2010 plans, but that still protects the interests of the Matsafeni. Why then, we ask, is a provincial politician involving herself in the affairs of our community? We hope it is not because she has something to gain personally," said Mdluli.

Spoor stresses in a written report on the matter that all that the Matsafeni are demanding is that the trust be restructured to properly reflect the will of the beneficiaries, and that the community be compensated for any loss of land or other rights.

"The quickest and most effective resolution would be a written settlement, which could be made an order of court," he says.

The trust, headed by Terry Mdluli, has instead asked for a postponement of the Tuesday trial date so that it can prepare to defend itself in court.

Spoor and the Matsafeni have refused.

- African Eye