The Mpumalanga Land Claims Commission plans to appeal against a ruling that officials had no right to expand a land claim to include properties not listed in an original claim form.
The case relates to a claim on Daisy Kopje farm near Barberton. The claim form shows Nkosi Rainslee lodged a claim on behalf of the family to Portion (now called 4) of Daisy Kopje 643 JT, yet the commission gazetted all 12 portions of on behalf of the entire Daisy Kopje community.
In December 8 the Land Claims Court found the commission had no right to expand the claim or substitute the Nkosi family “by a different claimant which also includes other families”. The court has given the commission leave to appeal this ruling, officials said. They plan to argue the court’s strict interpretation of the claim form was an “oversight” that did not take the claimants’ intentions into account. “When lodging a claim as a family claim (the claimant) intended to include the community as part of the and intended to lodge a claim in respect of the whole farm,” commission spokesperson Frank Lesenyego said.
The ruling would have no impact on other cases on the commission’s books pending the outcome of the appeal, he said. t could prove a test case for hundreds of similar claims throughout SA, where landowners allege gazetted claims have included numerous properties not listed on claim forms.
Officials have defended the practice in the past, arguing claimants did not usually list full farm names or use names appearing on title deeds. The commission was therefore obliged to use oral evidence and site inspections. – Stephan Hofstätter
