Salem dispute goes to ConCourt
The rights of the Xhosa nation in the Zuurveld area in the Eastern Cape were extinguished when the nation was conquered and expelled from the area in 1812. A BusinessLIVE report says this is one of the arguments put up by landowners of the Salem commonage near Grahamstown‚ who have taken the fight to keep their land to the Constitutional Court.
Their appeal follows two judgments‚ which said the 6 598ha of agricultural land belongs to the indigenous people.
The owners‚ who said they occupied the land from 1820 following the conquest of the Xhosa nation by the British during the 4th Frontier War between 1811 and 1812‚ want the court to set aside the judgment of SCA passed in December last year.
The Salem Community claimed it was dispossessed of its right to the commonage from around 1947 until the 1980s.
The Constitution states that a community dispossessed of land after this date‚ as a result of past discriminatory laws‚ was entitled either to restitution of property or to equitable redress.
However‚ the landowners‚ some of whom descended from the 1820 British settlers‚ remain adamant that there was no black community in the area from 1812. This was because the war had expelled the Xhosa people from the Zuurveld area.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
