'You're as bad as the settlers'
2008-06-23 14:18
Justin Arenstein and Gcina Ntsaluba
Nelspruit - An outraged Pretoria High Court judge on Friday accused Mpumalanga's capital city and the provincial cabinet of resorting to the same "shiny mirrors" trick as early settlers to hoodwink a farmworker community out of their ancestral land.
A visibly angry High Court Justice Ntendeya Mavundla summonsed lawyers from the Mbombela city council, forcing them to drive 350km to Pretoria on Friday afternoon so that he could personally grill them for unethical and unconstitutional behaviour.
Justice Mavundla said it appeared the municipality believed it was above the law and the constitution itself when it tried to force the Matsafeni community to sell 118ha of prime development land for a mere R1.
Shiny buttons
The angry judge warned that the scheme was no different from historical cases when settlers or colonial authorities robbed naive people of their land in return for mirrors or "shiny buttons".
"I will not let this kind of thing happen again, not in this day and age" said Justice Mavundla.
The land, on the outskirts of Nelspruit, is the site of Mpumalanga's flagship R1 billion 2010 World Cup stadium.
Provincial authorities bulldozed two of South Africa's oldest black schools and started building the sprawling stadium complex on the community land two years ago without actually owning it.
When the Matsafeni community protested, Mbombela's disgraced mayor Justice Nsibande and other council officials threatened to forcefully remove the community to a new settlement 21km away in virgin bush - while similtaneously secretly negotiating an "illegal" sales agreement for just R1 with the chairman of the Matsafeni Trust, Terry Mdluli.
Nsibande and Mdluli both failed to declare that they were already business partners in a tourism company, along with at least one other senior Mbombela manager.
Community didn't support deal
National land affairs minister Lulama Xingwana and the National Land Claims Commission warned at the time that the sale was illegal, because it violated clauses built into the title deed to protect the community.
Xingwana also pointed out that Mpumalanga had failed to obtain her written permission for the sale as required by law, while human rights lawyers acting for the community pointed out that the trustees had failed to call the required special general meeting to discuss the deal and had also failed to get a 75% vote by the community supporting the sale.
The scandal cost Nsibande his job, and prompted the Matsafeni to successfully apply to the Pretoria High Court last month for the immediate removal of Mdluli and his fellow trustees.
Mbombela has, however, continued to insist that the R1 sales agreement is valid and this week tried to rush through the transfer of ownership from the Matsafeni to the municipality.
The council's lawyers warned the Matsafeni in a terse two-page letter that government would look into reversing the original R63m land claim settlement that restored the land to the community unless the beneficiaries agree to surrender the stadium site to Mbombela.
Letter of intimidation
The letter, by Kruger Moeletsi Attorneys, added that any attempt to resist the transfer by the Matsafeni or their firebrand human rights lawyer Richard Spoor would spark intervention from the provincial treasury, Development Bank of Southern Africa, and the national government to "safeguard" the tens of millions of rands already spent on the stadium.
The letter claims that the entire land claim itself is being reviewed by the national Department of Land Affairs, including the actual awarding of the land to the Matsafeni, the title deed restrictions, and the "restrictive conditions" imposed on the land that seek to protect not just the Matsafeni themselves but also other farmworkers and other residents who live on the land.
Spoor dismissed the letter as "outrageous intimidation" on Wednesday, rejected the claim that a "third force" was behind the community objections, and immediately applied to the Pretoria High Court for an urgent interim interdict to stop Mbombela from carrying out the transfer.
After reviewing the facts, Justice Mavundla agreed with Spoor that Mbombela's conduct was "offensive" and granted the interim interdict.
The judge said, "Go back to Nelspruit, and tell your client, the Mbombela council, that I am disgusted by its actions. And, tell them that I intend to find a manner to get them to answer for their actions."