Baphiring land claim back in court

The Supreme Court of Appeal will on Thursday hear an appeal against a judgment by the Land Claims Court over the Baphiring community in North West, which is seeking to regain title to what it says are its ancestral lands.

This comes at a time when the government has spent R69bn on land reform since 1994, with only about 8% of the targeted land redistributed. The government had initially planned to redistribute 30% of the land by next year, a target which it has since abandoned.

The main issues the appeal court must decide are whether the land is too expensive to be bought from the current landowners and whether the state can afford the post-settlement support, which the Baphiring community says would amount to about R40m. The state has only offered R2.6m in subsidies.

The community of 400 was dispossessed of the land in September 1972 at old Mabaalstad, near Vorster.

The community had purchased the land in the 1880s.

There have been three cases before the Land Claims Court regarding this land claim, and the community is appealing against the 2010 judgment, which held that restoration of the community to its land was not feasible.