The Prudhoe community might finally get their land back, including the Fish River Sun hotel, after a 22-year battle made worse by what some believe was shocking obfuscation and incompetence by the Restitution of Land Rights Commission.

A Daily Dispatch report says the SCA this week dismissed the appeal of the Mazizini community, which contested the Prudhoe claim to 26 farms, including the land on which the Fish River Sun and golf course lies.

This judgment may finally remove the last obstacle to the 300 households making up the Prudhoe community being allowed to move back on to the land where their ancestors once farmed, lived and buried their dead.

The battle has taken so long that 109 of the 124 original heads of households have died, many in extreme poverty, said the Legal Resources Centre, which acted on their behalf.

The ruling by SCA Judge Nambitha Dambuza and Acting Judge Phineas Mojapelo – with Judges Malcolm Wallis, Boissie Mbha and Acting Judge Jannie Eksteen – unequivocally found in favour of the Prudhoe community.

LRC attorney Cameron McConnachie said the judgment exposed the commission’s unwavering and irrational support for the disingenuous claim of the Mazizini community. He said land dispossession remained a blight on the country’s history.

‘The failure to fix the system and realise land rights has been compounded by rampant state corruption and maladministration, which has decimated provincial land reform budgets, prioritised disingenuous land claims and ushered in the industrial sector’s access to land for profit. The vast majority of poor black South Africans continue to be denied security of tenure and the right to a sense of self-worth and dignity.’

Full Daily Dispatch report