‘Land sales are illegal’

Michael Appel

While the frontman involved in the alleged selling of restituted land in the Mpushini area in KwaZulu-Natal, Sphiwe Majozi, may have died, others continue to sell land in contravention of a court order.

The New Age has been following the case of four families including the Mchunu, Mlambo, Mthembu and Mncube families, among others, that have been battling to have their land claims recognised.

The families were forcibly removed from an area near Ashburton in KwaZulu-Natal known as Mpushini between 1969 and 1992.

A community land claim by the alleged criminal Sphiwe Majozi, in the area, was the only successful claim and two parties have been feuding since over consolidating their claims. Musa Mchunu, who led the recent successful court challenge to stop Majozi from selling the community’s land, said Majozi had refused to consolidate their claims or stop selling plots of land.

Attorney Nomagug Ngubane of the Land Rights Legal Unit in the Association for Rural Advancement (Afra) yesterday confirmed that the court order stands and those who continued to sell plots of land and continued with construction work were doing so illegally. “I have a meeting with the people from our legal unit today to discuss the way forward, but what is going on is illegal,” said Ngubane.

Mchunu said: “Majozi passed away in May and was buried on June 10. His cronies are continuing to sell restituted land. The Mkhambathini municipality is battling to stop these criminals from occupying the land and more and more willing buyers are illegally occupying the land of beneficiaries.”

Mchunu and other disgruntled families approached the courts to help stop the sale of the land and were granted an urgent application to interdict the alleged criminal activity on August 17, 2011 by the Land Claims Court in Pietermaritzburg. The court order issued by presiding Judge Cassim Sardiwalla states that, “Respondents be and are hereby interdicted and restrained from disposing land and or allocating sites to anybody regarding land around Mpushini area which has been claimed by the applicants.”

Mchunu claimed the court order is being ignored by the authorities.

Majozi was in the process of going through a contempt of court battle for continuing to sell restituted land when he passed away from an undisclosed illness.

michaela@thenewage.co.za

The New Age