Update

GEORGE NEWS - Land claimants for the rural areas outside Pacaltsdorp have turned to the Western Cape Premier's office to help them obtain their original claim documents from the Southern Cape Regional Land Claims Commission (RLCC). They say that they have documentary evidence that they had submitted a valid claim that was approved by the LCC's Cape Town office.

The claimants' pleas over two decades to the LCC, the public protector in George, and lately also national public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, to give them access to their documents have been in vain. They appealed to the public protector in terms of Paia (Promotion of Access to Information Act), but to no avail. They refuse to lodge a claim afresh as proposed by the public protector in George.

The George Herald previously reported on their struggle to obtain the original documents from the LCC so that their claim process can resume.

The two spokespersons for the claimants, Joey October and Hayley Jacobsen, say their claim was submitted by the late AA (Freddie) Arries in November 1997 and approved for further research on 8 May 1998, under the claim reference number A769.

"Hansmoeskraal being the most important component of the rural areas claimed for, was researched by us along with the RLCC's specialist researcher over the next three years. We proved that racial law and racial practice were the reasons behind the disposession of the land which made the claim for Hansmoeskraal compliant."

On 22 February 2011, the commission indeed issued a letter of compliance, but in this instance failed to reflect the A769 reference number on the document. "We queried this and the researcher undertook to correct this."

This could never be done because the commission discovered that the claim had never been published in the Government Gazette, which brought the claim to a halt.

Second claim lodged
According to October and Jacobsen, a second claim was lodged by Fredie Arries on 30 December 1998 to include 19 families who had hired allotments on the Pacaltsdorp commonage from the George Municipality, but were later put off the land.

An official in the George LCC office, at the request of Arries, used the 'front page' of the already approved Pacaltsdorp Landelike claim form with reference number A769, as the title of this second claim form. However, historically there was no evidence of forced removals from the commonage due to racial practice, making this claim non-compliant.

Says October, "This document did not leave the George satellife office. The commissioner at the time confirmed this as she declared to the claimants of the allotments that no land restitution claim had been lodged for Pacaltsdorp. This document remained in the George satellite office for safe keeping in the event that the original claim form got misplaced or lost. In essence, this document became the 'identity document' ensuring the safety of the Pacaltsdorp Landelike land claim Ref A769."

Jacobsen says that it was confirmed that the form is still in the George office of the LCC. This was divulged in communications between the Cape Town office of the public protector and various commission officials. But this still proved futile as neither the public protector in George nor the national public protector enforced the claimants' right to access the documentation.

They are now appealing to Helen Zille, Western Cape premier, and the President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to intervene in the matter.

Read a previous article: Another closed door for Hansmoeskraal land claimants

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