Mdluli clan go back to their land
13 December 2003
The Mpumalanga Regional Land Claims Commission will on Saturday celebrate the handing over of more than 6 000 hectares of Matsafeni farm to about 1 250 Mdluli clan households who are now the proud owners of productive land from which they were evicted during the apartheid era.
The commission said in a statement that the Mdluli land is arguably one of the most productive farms in the province and the biggest land claim it has settled to date.
The regional land claims commissioner, Nceba Nqana said: "The community will get to own avocado, litchis, pecan nuts, sugar-cane farms and plantations. To ensure sustainable development on the farm, the company HL Hall and Sons has signed a one-year contract with the claimants, whereby the company will pay R100 000 per month towards skills development, which will include farm management and mentoring."
Nqana said to date his office has settled more than 1 260 claims, and that this figure is set to
rise dramatically, as more submissions have been sent to the Minister of Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza for a decision. He added that claims to be settled in 2004 include Maleoskop and Badplaas.
According to Nqana, the beneficiaries of the Matsafeni farm are descendents of Matsafeni Mdluli who was a leader of a secessionist group that broke away from the Swazi kingdom in the previous century. Mdluli waged war against the expanding Sotho groups that had their military post stationed in Blyde River Canyons, now called Maripskop, named after the Pedi chief Maripe.
The members of the Mdluli clan occupied the farm Matsafeni in about 1840. The farm, said Nqana, consisted of what is now called Riverside 308 JT, Woodehouse 309 and JT, Dingwell 276 JT, Marathon 275 JT and Boscrand 283 JT.
Around 1880 a white man called HL Hall and his family requested Matsafeni Mdluli to stay on the farm. In about 1905, with the passage of time HL Hall became a successful businessman and was a
supplier of food to the mines and to the railway workers. The railway administration later recognised HL Hall as the de facto owner of the farms due to his business association with the railways.
Hall established HL Hall and Sons as a private company, which in 1921 became the registered owners of the farms and took transfer of the properties.
Members of the Mdluli clan could only stay on the farms if they worked for the company in terms of the Transvaal Squatter Law of 1895.
All the successive apartheid governments only recognised common law ownership based on freehold title as an appropriate legal basis for land holding. This form of land holding was reserved predominantly for whites.
The oppressive conditions of labour tenancy imposed on the Mdluli clan forced many of them to leave their land, while those who stayed but refused to work for the company were evicted.
Source: Buanews
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