land expropriation

File photo

Durban dad pleads for land back after waiting years for claim approval

Land claims have been left outstanding in South Africa for decades.

land expropriation

File photo

During apartheid, many people of colour across the country were forced to move from one area to another. Some gave up family homes that they had spent their lives growing up in. For one Durban dad, his quest to get his house back with land claims has been a long and frustrating one.

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Land claims: A broken system?

A report in Daily News tells of Robin Naidoo, a Durban father who was disposed of his family land in Phoenix in 1977. He has waited years to get his land back and says the eThekwini Municipality has demanded the property’s current market value.

“We were evicted in 1977 by the apartheid government. They used North Coast Road as a dividing line. They moved us to the west and the north-west which included Phoenix, already demarcated as an Indian area at the time.

“When we were removed by the Durban City Council, we were paid R12 000. The current council now says it wants the market value for the land.Why would it want to profit from apartheid laws? Why is it that we can’t get our land back after more than 20 years of lodging the claims?,” Naidoo told Daily News.

His house has since been leased to unknown people by the city and all attempts to resolve the situation have remained unsuccessful. The case has even been taken to the Pietermaritzburg land claims commission.

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Naidoo met multiple officials from the Durban land claims office in April but has again only heard that the municipality wants more money for the property.

“To me this means that it (the city) wants to benefit unduly from apartheid and racism by claiming current market value when the municipality received our land for free from the Durban City Council in 1994. Will President Cyril Ramaphosa now expropriate our claimed land, without compensation, from eThekwini Municipality and return it soon?”

One person who was removed from the area in 1980 has not heard back from the city in two years. The Commission has insisted that it is dealing with all cases lodged before 1998, no matter how complex they are.

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