Alex residents want land – not money

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Members of the Alexandra Land and Property Owners Association believe that compensation money offered to them by the Regional Land Claims Commission is a way of ‘tricking’ them into giving up their land.
The commission has offered members R50 000 each as compensation for their land which was taken away in the apartheid era.
However, secretary general of the association, Jacky Sekgopa, was sceptical and said it did not make sense that the commission wanted to compensate members then restore their land to them afterwards.
“We opt for the restoration of the full land and nothing less,” said Sekgopa.
He said there were members who had accepted the money, but more than 380 people had declined it. “About 900 people have been tricked into accepting the money and they still don’t have their land back.”
Assistant director for finance of the commission, Ellen Moletsane, denied they were trying to deceive anyone. “We are giving them financial assistance as compensation where the land is not restorable,” explained Moletsane. She said members would get back their land back over and above the compensation money, and where the land was not restorable, alternative land could be given to the members.
Moletsane’s colleague, Makama Mkhacame explained that non-restorable land was when another family already lived on it. He said he could not comment on where alternative land would come from. “I don’t have the mandate or competency to talk about that,” he said.
One of the members, Maria Makhuro said she was not at home when commission officials visited her. “The officials left documents for me to sign, but I won’t sign them, I just want my land,” said Makhuro. Another member, Elizabeth Sibeko alleged that one of the officials told her that if she did not accept the money, getting her land back could take long. Her husband Thomas Sibeko said, “All we want is the immediate transfer of the title deeds to our property.”