Infighting among beneficiaries of KwaDukuza land claim worth R200 million

PRIME LAND worth about R200 million that was handed over to community members in a land claim in KwaDukuza is now the subject of infighting among the beneficiaries.

- THAMI MAGUBANE

Members of the Zwelabantu Dube Communal Property Association (CPA) are embroiled in a dispute amid allegations of improper conduct and financial mismanagement of the land.

Some members of the CPA said since the claims were settled in 2009, the community has not benefited, and the land has instead been stolen through illegal occupation and the sale of valuable seaside land.

Recently, the Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development visited the area as part of its tour of CPAs in the province. The committee expressed concerns that the government had invested millions of rand into the claim, calling for an investigation into the affairs of the CPA. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development acquired the property for the Zwelabantu Dube CPA. The claim was lodged by Inkosi Zwelabantu Dube on behalf of 687 Dube community members on 10 November 1998, as the community was dispossessed of the claimed farm in the 1950s.