Commission wants claimants to have day in court

The Land Claims Commission wants the Geluk land claimants to be given their day in court, even though the claimants missed a court deadline to file opposing papers in a case some of the affected landowners brought against their claim.
The claims, lodged by the Bapo Ba Mogale and Bakwena Ba Mogopa communities, represent hundreds of irrigated vegetable farms on a white empowerment scheme established by the apartheid government near Brits in now-North West in the 1930s. It has since become a key vegetable-producing region that has seen a decline in production since the claims were gazetted in 2004. Several landowners have sold to the commission, but a large number insist the claims aren’t valid because the land the communities were resettled on represented adequate compensation. The claimants dispute this.
Last week Business Day reported landowners felt the community’s failure to meet the court deadline would result in the claim being withdrawn.
But chief land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela cautioned that the courts generally allowed several lapses before striking a case off the role. The commission would also prefer the case to be won or lost on its own merits.
“In line with our country’s land policy which is about redress and reconciliation. We don’t think the claimants should lose on a technicality,” he told Farmer’s Weekly. “We don’t want people feeling hard-done-by and harbouring resentments.”
But he cautioned communities not to expect government backing if they failed to comply with court procedures. “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
He said it’s up to the courts to decide if the claimants had good reason to not file papers on time. “But we don’t want to encourage people to walk all over the law. We will respect the court’s decision, whichever way it goes.” – Stephan Hofstätter