New challenge may sour Richtersveld deal (Mail and Guardian)
BEN MACLENNAN | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 20 2007 14:27
A group ofRichtersveld residents is to challenge a settlement agreement with thegovernment when the document goes before the Land Claims Court in Cape Townnext week for ratification. Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin andrepresentatives of the Richtersveld Sida !hub Communal Property Association(CPA) signed the agreement in April this year. It followed a 10-year courtbattle by the Richtersvelders for the restoration of land taken by the statewhen diamonds were discovered south of Alexander Bay in the 1920s.
Theagreement must, however, be ratified by the court, which is sitting for threedays next week to hear the matter. It has emerged that a Richtersveld"action committee" plans to oppose the agreement, and has briefedLawyers for Human Rights (LHR) to act on its behalf. LHR national directorRudolph Jansen said on Thursday the committee will ask the court next week forleave to take part in the proceedings. If it is given permission, it will arguethat the agreement should not be made a court order. He said the mostimportant reason is that the committee believes many aspects of it has not beenproperly negotiated with the community at large, and that the Richtersveldersneed to know all their options and choices. Other reasons include its lack ofdetail on land-use issues.
According to Jansen, the committee represents a"fairly broad group of people". A CPA leader, Piet Cloete, said theassociation does not believe that the committee is a real threat tofinalisation of the agreement. He confirmed that negotiators for thecommunity and the state have reached consensus on the terms of a diamond-mining"pooling and sharing" joint venture, in which state-owned miningcompany Alexkor would hold a 51% share and the community the rest.
One changefrom the terms envisaged in the April agreement is that the community wouldparticipate in Alexkor's mining activities from the date the agreement is madea court order, rather than when mining rights are transferred to the community,as originally envisaged. Erwin said earlier this month that he would make amajor statement on Alexkor after the agreement was finalised in court. Theagreement was adopted at an emotionally charged Richtersveld community meetingin May that was followed by a split between the CPA and the Legal ResourcesCentre, which had been representing the community. The centre believed that theterms offered by Erwin were not in the community's best interests.
The statehas spent about R50-million fighting the Richtersvelders' claim to the land,and their demand for restitution for the diamonds taken from it overgenerations. Judge Antonie Gildenhuys suspended the court case last year toallow the community, government and Alexkor to negotiate. -- Sapa
Source:Mail & Guardian Online Web Address:http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-09-20-new-challenge-may-sour-richtersveld-deal