Frank Maponya

Frank Maponya

The Seshego land claims committee is confident itwill get back land from which they were forcibly removed during the apartheid era.

This follows approval reportedly given by Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana to identify land near Polokwane where they could resettle.

Xingwana reportedly gave the claimants permission to identify land that could be developed and also promised to give each claimant a deed of grant.

The minister apparently made the promise during a meeting with the claimants on November 11 last year.

Yesterday the claimants were ferried in more than 60 buses to four areas outside Polokwane, where they identified land on which they will resettle.

Between 4000 and 5000 families were forcibly removed from their ancestral land in the late 1960s to Seshego township outside Polokwane.

The claimants were residents of New Pietersburg, Old Location, New Look and New Look Extension, Matekereng, and GaMorupa.

Some of them had to leave behind the graves of their relatives at Doornkraal Farm.

The claimants are made up of land owners, tenants and sub-tenants.

Committee chairman Esrom Mogano expressed confidence that their land would be returned.

"The latest developments are an indication that the minister has finally heeded our plight and the people are all happy," Mogano said yesterday.

He said some of the people came from as far as Kimberley in Northern Cape and Gauteng to claim their land back.