Another huge land claim is set in the “new East” of Pretoria, but this time it’s a Boer Afrikaner claiming land. The claim includes the Roodeplaat dam area in the north of the city and runs all the way through parts of the city to the Bronkhorstspruit dam and Boksburg on the East Rand, including Verwoerdburg southeast of the city and all the way to Balmoral.
The claim was submitted by Dave Christie at the Central Transvaal Commission for the Restitution of Land Rights which includes the entire Roodeplaat dam area based on the allegation that the land was illegally expropriated from his great-grandmother, Catherine Logan, by the Union of South Africa.
The claim also includes the adjacent land of 24 other Boer families who owned legally, but according to Christie the land were taken without compensation by the Smuts government after the Second Boer War between 1914 and 1917.
He also declared a dispute regarding the claim of the so-called captain of the Ndebele, the late Velaphi Lekhuleni, published in December and February.
Christie told a regional newspaper the land mentioned in his claim and a large part of the land claimed by Lekhuleni, recently killed in Mamelodi, was owned by his parents and other Boer families long before the Ndebele established themselves in Pretoria.
The Commission wouldn’t initially accepted Christie’s documents regarding the claim, because the law for land claims are aimed only at “indigenous” restitution, but they finally accepted the documents, and he received an acknowledgment of receipt from them. He explained to them that the Boer Afrikaner are also “indigenous” to South Africa and eventually they accepted his explanation.
Source – Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
