Land beneficiaries in Eastern Cape hope to lift themselves out of poverty

Beneficiaries of land restoration in the Eastern Cape are planning to use their communal land to fight poverty and create employment opportunities in their respective communities. Two villages have received title deeds of their land from the Department of Land Reform.

The communities were forcefully removed from their land in the 1950s by the apartheid government. The Dube community from Peddie has been bestowed more than 685 000 hectares of agricultural land. They also received a financial compensation of more than R4 million. The land lies unused, but it has a potential for agriculture.

“Now that we received the land, we want to develop it to such an extent that we are able to farm productively producing crops so that we are able to feed ourselves, neighbours we also want to breed livestock,” says Dube chairperson Edward Maseti.

Cwaru village in Middledrift got more than 611 000 hectares of land. An additional R10 million was also approved to compensate for the remainder of their land that was not restored.

“We are happy that we received the land, we want government to assist us with developing the land,” says representative of Cwaru village Vuyani Tshaka.

Fort Cox Agricultural Collage has been roped in to assist these communities with skills and capacity building.

“For these families we are in the process of doing farm assessment which we are going to have business plan which will be the guiding document of what is going to be done and how much is going to be used. The Department does not just give land, there is support that is given intended to help them to use the land sustainable,” says Chief Director from land claims office Zama Memela.

The Eastern Cape has 630 outstanding claims out of the 17 000 that were lodged.