26 November 2010

DONATE OR REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE LAND CLAIMS

The Association has finally opened up a bank account. Anyone who is interested in making a donation and or a contribution, of whatever nature, size or quantity, is much welcome to make a deposit into the following bank account:

Bank Name                         : ABSA
Account Name                  : Bafokeng Land Buyers Association Club
Product/Account Type      : Absa Club Account
Account Number             : 9253919619
Domicile Branch                : Rusten Plaza
Domicile Branch Code    : 6590
Bank Clearing Code         : 632005

The Association wishes to encourage members of the land claiming communities to register their commitment and support to their land claims with their respective Coordinators who will give them registration slips. Registration fee is R100.00.
More information on the top left corner below the Home tab.

23 November 2010

Leruo Molotlegi and Lucas Mangope, strange partners?!

Batho bame’ Lucas Mangope, the former Bophuthatswana bantustan leader, employed the security services of the Potchefstroom/Ventersdorp based rightwing organisation, AWB, during the homeland’s 1994 coup d’ etat .
In the late 80’s the Bafokeng fought bitterly against ‘Leah emelela ba go bone go re o  montle jang’ Mangope who sought to expropriate their mineral wealth. ‘Bophuthatswana will be independent for the next 100yrs’ Mangope harassed and incarcerated the ‘royal’ family, and had the Bafokeng chief Lebone Molotlegi fleeing to Botswana for his safety.
It is the same Lucas ‘thosa ko thoseng’ Mangope who was recently (October 2010) honoured by the North West University Council for his ‘contribution to the development of academia’. The Council is under the leadership of the late chief Lebone Molotlegi’s successor, Leruo Molotlegi, who is the University’s Chancellor.
Susan and Zietsman are rumoured to have been employing the brutal ex- Bophuthatswana soldiers and policemen in their Bafokeng security company.
When senior members and leadership of the Bafokeng communities’ wants to consult with the chief, they first have to pass through Zietsman. Zietsman could therefore, through security checks, deny or allow important information intended for the chief. When denied, the chief never gets to know about it. In this way the chief is blindfolded and Zietsman a de-facto chief. 
The question that begs is whether the chief is aware of the puzzle and therefore aspirant of ‘ke motoroko, ke monate ka fa teng, mme o seka wa ntlampurela’ Magope. The signs are that the chief, conscious or not, is creating another bantustan.

08 November 2010

Balanced media reporting on the land claim case against the Bafokeng

The Mafikeng High Court contest over who really bought the 'Bafokeng tribal land' continue to receive balanced media coverage. The Bafokeng Land Buyers Association has noticed with dismay the propagandist, one hour documentary by the Royal Bafokeng Nation that was aired on SABC in late September 2010. In light of the pending High Court case, the SABC should have at least checked the authenticity of the claims made in the documentary before going on air with them. See the Sunday Independent report on the following link: 'A historian who has extensively studied the Bafokeng area says there is substantial evidence to support the claim that smaller groups bought the land which was registered under the Bafokeng tribe during British Colonial rule'. You have to be a subscriber to the newspaper to access the article. Otherwise one could simply buy the paper from a nearby shop.

12 October 2010

More demolitions and hardships for Chaneng and Robega villagers at the whim of the Bafokeng chief!

In the past week ending 10th October 2010, the communities of Chaneng and Robega, two adjacent rural villages that forms the Bafokeng 'tribe' and a stone-throw away from Sun City, chased away the Bafokeng Security company led by the  former apartheid operative Adolph Zietsman out of the village. The notorious Red Ants (a company or group of people wearing red overalls, specifically hired for demolishing houses and evicting the poor) brought in by the repressive Bafokeng Tribal Authority also faced the wrath of the angry, poor villagers. The Red Ants, who were camped next to the village, were warned to vacate their camp or be forced out. They duly obliged and vacated the camp. The community barricated the roads and stopped work at the local Anglo Platinum Styldrift Mine Project.

At a community meeting to adress the illegal evictions and demolitions of their houses by the repressive Bafokeng Tribal Authority, the police shot at community members and  arrested eight community members. The arrested were handpicked from their houses long after the gathering had dispersed. The eight were released from the Phokeng Police station at a collective R1500 bail. They are scheduled to appear in Court on the 10th November 2010 apparently on charges of public violence.

The community has again been denied, for the third time, their right to protest under similar unlawful reasons advanced to the adjacent Luka Community, that they should first get permission to protest from the very same people they are protesting against! It is believed that Adolph Zietsman, head of security of the Bafokeng Tribal Authority, has wide, well sponsored anarchist influence on the local police stations, the Municipal police, and on the chief himself!

A number of Bafokeng communites, including Chaneng and Robega have lodged claims for title to their platinum rich lands at the Mafikeng High Court. A number of them insists on cessation from the repressive Bafokeng Tribal bantustan. Follow this link for more reporting: uproar-over-demolishing-of-houses

30 September 2010

Unlawful prohibition of the march against Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng 'tribe'

The Rustenburg Local Municipality refused permission for the protest march against the Bafokeng chief this coming Saturday 02 October 2010, saying that the Luka Community must first get permission from the very same people they are marching against! The march organised by the Bafokeng Anti-repression Campaign will nevertheless continue...Phistus Mekgwe and Violet Makobe asserted.
The Conveners say they will contest the prohibition in Court, and will expose the level of influence the Bafokeng enjoys on structures of goverment in the area, including the local Bafokeng Magistrates Court!They say they did whatever was possible to satisfy the illegal demands by the Municipality, and complied with all legal requirements for the notification of the march.They say this is the worst kind of repression, to suppress peoples' Constitutional rights to freedom of association and protest. A number of such applications have been refused in the area thus far on unreasonable and unjustifiable grounds. The communities are not able to exert and protect their rights.... and the challenge has always been that they cannot find or afford legal representatives who are not linked to Bafokeng.

28 September 2010

Protest March Against the Bafokeng Chief Leruo Molotlegi

The Community of Luka Village, will embark on another protest march on the 02nd October 2010 in what has been termed the 'Bafokeng Anti-repression Campaign'. The March will start at Mogono circle, Luka Clinic and Thethe High School at 12pm. Bafokeng Land Buyers Association has been invited to support the campaign as it is believed to be 'tactical work' on the ongoing land claims in Mafikeng High Court. Follow the following links on the 'repression': Tuckshop owners in Luka Village, Bafokeng, fights back!; Demolition of tuckshops and eviction of backyard dwellers

10 September 2010

Another successful milestone towards Bafokeng Communities’ land claims

On the 26th August 2010, the Mafikeng High Court declared a number of Communities forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ as ‘respondents’ to the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s application to have a number of farms registered and transferred in the latter’s name and favour.
The Communities, now respondents on the matter, are opposing the RBN’s application. The RBN’s main application is contained in an affidavit that is 3000 pages long. The RBN initially insisted that the Communities file their answering/opposing affidavits by October 2010. The Communities contested that filing by October 2010 would be practically impossible and that nine months would afford them a reasonable period for them to compile a comprehensive response.
 The Communities argues that the RBN had all the years to compile their long affidavit, that it would be an unfair expectation to get the poor Communities to compile their opposing affidavits in less than three months. The Communities argues further that the RBN are enjoying the extravagant use of the tribal funds to further their ‘unjust’ cause, while the Communities, albeit being the Bafokeng, and therefore the owners of the tribal funds, have not been afforded access to financial resources towards their litigation costs.
 In the end, the Court ordered, by agreement, that the Communities file their opposing affidavits within six months (that is by end of February 2011).

10 August 2010

ANOTHER ROUND AGAINST THE ROYAL BAFOKENG NATION AT THE MAFIKENG HIGH COURT

On the 26th August 2010, Bafokeng Land Buyers Association and various other communities forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’, will once again square up against the Royal Bafokeng Nation at the Mafikeng High Court.

The Mafikeng High Court ordered on the 10th December 2009, that various communities intending to oppose the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s application for transference and registration of some 61 farms in the RBN’s name, lodge their interest on the matter by the 26th February 2010.

A number of communities/families from villages forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ have since shown an interest to oppose the RBN’s application. The Bafokeng chief has also  instructed his lawyers to allow anyone wishing to oppose, to lodge their answering affidavits with the Court by October 2010. The Bafokeng’s affidavit is over 3000 pages long. It will be contested that the opposing communities will not be able to answer the 3000 pages by October 2010, and that they (the communities) be afforded enough/reasonable time to prepare their answering affidavits.

Transport will leave at Game parking in town at 6:30am. Anyone interested in travelling to the Court on the day may contact Michael Nape on 073 1988 634  

GENERAL MEETING OF THE BAFOKENG LAND BUYERS ASSOCIATION

Bafokeng Land Buyers Association, will hold a general meeting on the 15th August 2010, 10am, at Thethe High School. The meeting will look at, amongst other things, the adoption of the Constitution.

Anyone interested in claiming and exerting various rights (eg. land, environmental, economic, human rights, etc.) related to the land claims against the Royal Bafokeng Nation is welcome to participate.

The Land Buyers Association is primarily made up of the descendants of the original buyers of the land that forms the Bafokeng Tribal area. Included also are the residents who by custom have been accepted to be part of the communities/makgotla that form the Bafokeng tribe. The Association does not exclude membership of people who have no direct interest in the land claims, but who lives among and outside the Bafokeng, and are incensed by the irresponsible manner in which the Bafokeng administration and the chief run the ‘tribal’ affairs, to the detriment of the poor people, and in violation of the Constitution. An example would be people who are not Bafokeng, but who are concerned by the endorsement by the Bafokeng ‘tribal’ Authority to environmental damages perpetuated by the local mining companies (Impala Platinum, Anglo Platinum, Xstrata and Lonmin) operating in the poor rural villages that forms the Bafokeng ‘tribe’. 

THIS YEAR’S ‘DUMELA PHOKENG’ WAS AN INSULT

The Royal Bafokeng chief had in years preceding 2010, made it his practice that he visited the various makgotla of communities that make up the Bafokeng ‘tribe’. The aim of the visit was mainly to hear concerns raised by various makgotla levelled against the chief and his administration.

This year the chief, ‘for administrative purposes’, decided to club the various makgotla of Chaneng, Robega, Rasimone, Mogono, Ratshwene and Luka into one cluster. He was scheduled to ‘visit’ the clustered communities at Thethe High School at around 10am in April/May.

The proceedings started without him at around 12pm, with various communities pouring their concerns out. When he arrived and ascended the stage, he apologised for being late, and that he will not stay to finish the program as his friend has been admitted to hospital and that he had to fly to see him.

He said that they (him and his administration) did not come to hear concerns, but to tell the subjects what changes have been made in administration. He spoke for less than 15minutes and then left…. for his friend in hospital.

Well, people have said before that the chief and his administration would have long been voted out if it was not for the tribal system. ‘They have been listening to the same complaints for many years and have done absolutely nothing….nothing’, exclaimed Dodo Mekgwe.

An hour or two after he had left the meeting dispersed for the 2010 Fifa World Cup festivities outside the school yard. People were served with a plate of pap and vleis.

‘We are used to preparing food in big pots when there are events such as this. It is an insult to us that a catering company, from we don’t know where, was paid millions of rands, to prepare this poorly cooked meals for us, as if there are no women in Luka’, complained an elderly woman. ‘It is possible that they may have spiced the food with korobela to soften the ‘rebels’, complained another. ‘I have taken mine for the dog at home, I want to see if it will not die or change its ‘bad’ manners after eating the meal’, they all laughed.

BAFOKENG COMMISSION’S REPORTS

The Bafokeng Tribal Authority had in the years 2006/7 instituted a commission of enquiry to establish the heirs to chieftaincies of the various makgotla forming the Bafokeng ‘tribe’, and whose chiefs have passed on.

The reports were presented to the various makgotla in May/June this year, much to the agitation of a number of makgotla. Various makgotla in Chaneng, Luka, Tsitsing, Mogajane, and others cited lack of consultation and poor information collection methods used in drawing up the reports. Some refused the imposition of chiefs on them, citing that the Bafokeng chief wants to impose on them chiefs that are power hungry, greedy, ‘yes-men’ who will not oppose  him in any way. The communities fear that the imposed chiefs will therefore be ‘used’ to stand against communities currently claiming their land from the Bafokeng. ‘They will use their position and influence as chiefs to sway support in favour of the Bafokeng chief, who also pay them monthly salaries’.

THE BAFOKENG 2010 WORLD CUP PARTY HAS COME AND GONE

The first ever African World Cup on African soil, without a single African coach was all a hoax, Blatter’s Party, set up to redicule the African people, and boasting to the world on how Africa is easily colonised, Thusi Rapoo ponders, and remembers the painful struggle, incarceration, and the gruesome death of the young Steven Bantu Biko.

Like the two years leading to the ANC’s 2007 Limpopo Conference when the nation waited in abated breath to the outcome of the Conference’ elections, the communities that form the Bafokeng ‘tribe’ were for the past three years, held under a magical spell, that the 2010 Fifa Wold Cup will usher in hundreds of thousands of wealthy tourists carrying bags of pounds to spend on their dusty rural villages. High on ecstasy, people spend sleepless nights planning, attending workshops, renovating, building, applying for finance, training (as tour operators), stocking,…


Now that the ‘national’ party is over, people nursing a World Cup babalaas, have started to ask….’what happened? What was the World Cup really all about? Where is the legacy?’

Around the Bafokeng, the few local people who got a little something out of the World Cup are the three taverners at Phokeng, and the construction workers who upgraded the Bafokeng stadium to the tune of R200m. Without informed projections and lack of access to finance, the taverners’ stocks were sold out long before their closing times, while the construction workers got four tickets each worth less than R1000 to watch mediocre games. The three hawkers in front of the Phokeng garage next to the stadium were very lucky not to have been kicked out, and had their dilapidated stalls upgraded.


On the flip side, SAB and DSTV must have made bumper sales, while poor taverners in areas located outside Phokeng could not sell their piled up stocks due to the cold winter and the absence of crime-phobic tourists.

Companies from Johannesburg and elsewhere that build and furnished the R327m Bafokeng hotel that accommodated the English team must be laughing all the way to the bank…. with the chief’s money.

In the end, the Bafokeng communities are left with two white elephants (a six star hotel and the stadium) that the communities, with their mining royalty earnings, must still maintain, for the affluent’s pleasures and enjoyment, while the very owners, the poor Bafokeng communities, still go to bed without food.

There is of course a much bigger picture of a huge, incalculable national loss, amounting to billions of rands that even SARS has not been able to account for.

On hindsight, and with Customs’ gates wide open, is it possible that tons of ounces of platinum could have been looted, clandestinely leaving our shores for Europe on the back of FIFA concessions?

Should we be thankful to Blatter for proving beyond reasonable doubt the naivety and sheer indifference of our leaders? Or was Blatter perhaps simply trying to prove that in their sober senses, our leaders can still be compelled to forget their song, their heroes, their struggles, while on the same breath dancing to Marley’s freedom song, and telling liberation stories about Biko’s black consciousness and the 1976 June 16 uprisings.
Blatter gave us Parreira, and the Bafokeng chief is notorious and on record for favouring whites over local ‘Bafokeng’ expertise when making key appointments in the tribal administration.
‘This is now, 2010, we are here, and  Biko is long dead’, so they say.

FIVE CENTURIES IN THE NEVER-ENDING LOOTING OF AFRICA


Adventure and abundant natural resource brought the early European settlers to Africa - and the same goes for many subsequent generations of fortune hunters to this very day.

The benefits that have accrued to the indigenous peoples from the five centuries of rapine since the Portuguese first settled west central Africa are subjects of intense and wide spread debate in modern Africa.   But undoubtedly, one consequence of Europe's lust for wealth has been lives of extreme nastiness, brutality and brevity for countless Africans.

The early Portuguese in Angola set the general tone, exploiting the most obvious resource: African flesh. Some four million Africans were exported as slaves to the Americas. It has been estimated that another nine million died during the march to the coast from the interior and while waiting to be herded on to ships.

Portugal and the Roman Catholic Church, which closely followed the flag, argued that the slave trade was spiritually beneficial.  Both insisted that slaves be baptized before crossing the Atlantic in chains. On the wharfs at Luanda, the Angolan capital, as late as 1870 there could still be seen a marble chair in which the bishop had sat and baptized by boatloads the poor unfortunates.  The Portuguese collected their tax, the clergyman his fee, and the Africans had their introduction to the white man's religion and civilization. There were also vast forests and immense riches waiting to be exploited, with labour provided by such Africans who had not been shipped to Brazil and the US. 

South African Experience

Mineral wealth was the foundation of colonial economies throughout Africa.  Minerals financed South Africa's racial supremacy, first under the British and then the Afrikaners.  Now, under 'globalisation' in the post apartheid era it finances a new 'economic' apartheid of corrupt elites and a destitute majority.
Before the gold rush to Johannesburg there was the diamond rush to Kimberley, in Tswana and Griqua territory, which the British immediately annexed upon realizing there was a diamond pipe which would prove the richest in the world.   The Kimberley diamond pipe is thought to descend nearly 100 miles into the Earth.
Thus began the black labour system that would be the necessary concomitant of European and American exploitation of Africa's mineral riches. 

The British created, in 1872, the pass system that would become the method of white control of black labourers and their families.  The origins of apartheid lay here. Today the migrant worker market is still under the control of the mines, whereby they import large groups of foreign workers to destabilize local communities in order to weaken their unity.

South Africa still has some gold riches, but the great mining companies now have to dig ever deeper and at ever greater expense to reach the lodes. Some mines are so deep that workers at the rock faces wear special waistcoats packed with ice to counteract the heat.  Although safety standards have improved, African miners still die in great numbers.

As South Africa's accessible gold reserves began to dwindle, a new source of immense wealth in the form of platinum has begun to be exploited in another great arc, sweeping 300 miles from west to east, some 50 miles north of Johannesburg along the 'Merensky reef' .

There lies around 90% of the world's known reserves of platinum and related metals such as  palladium, ruthenium, and rhodium (PGMs). The reserves may be enough to sustain current explosive rates of production for less than100 years. 

Open cast mining techniques that would never be allowed in the developed world are being applied in almost every new mine popping up like a disease on the landscape, destroying the best agricultural land and contaminating precious underground water.

The platinum group of metals recently overtook gold as South Africa's biggest mineral earner.  Even so, the value brought to the country as a whole is a tiny fraction of what it should be.
The mineral exploitation has become highly mechanized and automated. It provides more jobs in the rest of the world than it does in South Africa.

The PGMs are scattered amongst various tribal groups whom the exploiters find ever so easy to corrupt with lavish profits for unelected tribal 'chiefs' in exchange for loss of rights and misery for the masses.

This scale of destruction is new to the mining world. The platinum rush is a race against time before the people awaken to the fact that their habitat is being irreversibly destroyed.

Whilst South Africa  has proved a true Eldorado for the rest of the world, the prize for the local majority has been deepening poverty and environmental ruin.

Plunder of Congo

Two thousand miles to the north, the Congo, a million square miles of rich forests, fertile land, abundant water and exquisite wildlife, sat above fabled riches - gold, diamonds, cobalt, oil, uranium, tin and copper.

Belgium 's King Leopold II won control of an area the size of western Europe in1885 and embarked on three decades of plunder from which the Congo has not recovered.  It became a forced labour camp where Leopold's thugs forced people from more than 200 ethnic groups to extract rubber, hardwoods and ivory to build fabulous wealth in Brussels while impoverishing their own  native health.  "We must obtain a slice of this magnificent African cake and diffuse the light of civilization among the natives," Leopold told his backers. 

In reality, wrote Joseph Conrad, the King of the Belgians' activities amounted to "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience.

Leopold divided the Congo into concessions where task masters shot natives who failed to meet their daily targets.  Soldiers had to cut off the hands and ears of men, women and children they had killed and present them to their commanders who matched them against the number of cartridges issued to ensure no waste.

Roger Casement, British consul for 11 years in the Congo, reported to Whitehall that the population of one region had been cut from 40,000 to 1,000.  Prior to the Belgians' arrival, Congo's population was estimated at 20 million. A 1911 census revealed that only 8.5 m were left.
When Leopold died, a scramble for the Congo's minerals began that has continued to this day and which has resulted in internal wars that in the past two decades have taken four million lives - "wars of poor people against miserable people", as one diplomat put it.  "The heart of darkness" was how Conrad described the Congo. The heart of sadness is more appropriate.

There are dozens of other Congos in Africa; places blessed with immeasurable natural resources and cursed with immense and terrible poverty, problems so complex that they may only be exacerbated by the simplistic political solutions of the well meaning. 

The latest scramble in Africa is for oil.  The reserves, for which Western oil companies pay hundreds of millions of pounds in "signing bonuses" merely for the right to sink exploration wells, may eventually match the Middle East's.  The US expects to import 25% of its oil from Africa within 10 years.  Thanks to oil, Angola's economy is growing at 15% a year, yet the UN says it is the worst place on Earth to be a child.  The discovery of oil in south central Sudan has fuelled the killings in Darfur which humanitarian organizations say amounts to genocide. 

On paper, Africans ought to be thriving, given their continent's vast resources.  But try telling that to slum dwellers and shoeless peasants in the areas peripheral to the mines. 
It's time to stop the pillage.

07 August 2010

We are back!

The bug has been fixed. You can still visit us at our Facebook page as guided in the post below.

27 June 2010

As England kick off, locals accuse team's hosts of looting their wealth


By: David Smith

England could not have asked for more generous hosts. The Royal Bafokeng Nation has provided Fabio Capello's men with a pounds 327m sports campus, including a state-of-the-art gym and medical centre and luxury bedrooms.

The hospitality has earned the Bafokeng huge international media attention, most of it overwhelmingly positive as the story is told of an African kingdom that won its autonomy - and the right to mine the
world's richest source of platinum.

But among the praise-singers for the Bafokeng there are dissenting voices. Local communities accuse its royal family of evicting them, polluting their water and looting their wealth - some of which was poured into England's training camp and the stadium where they faced the United States last night.

The dispute is heading for court as these communities resist an attempt by the Bafokeng to have new tracts of land in South Africa's North West province registered in its name.

"Over 60% of the land is underlain by platinum and other reserves," said community representative Thusi Rapoo. "They want the farms, the land registered in their name. We want the land registered in the community's name."

Far from the benevolent hosts portrayed by a skilful PR operation, the Bafokeng can be ruthless in getting what it wants, according to Rapoo, of the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association.

"The employment of security to guard the family and its mining operations, we call platinum looting," he said. "They have literally assaulted community members. Communities have been evicted from their homes because of mining. They have polluted our waters, taken our grazing areas. Our farmland is occupied by mining infrastructure. We are landlocked by it."

Rapoo argues that there is a wide gulf between the Bafokeng royal family, headed by king Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, and the ethnically diverse communities that fall under its jurisdiction, often inaccurately described as part of the Bafokeng nation.

"We have families who go to sleep on hungry stomachs in Bafokeng ," he added. "There have been demands for government houses, but the royal family are not really supportive of government assistance. It is an incorrect view to say the Bafokeng people are doing well. The Bafokeng family are doing well for themselves."

Bafokeng lore states that in the late 19th century, king Kgosi Mokgatle embarked on a land acquisition programme to secure his community's rights under pressure from Boers, hunters and traders moving into the rolling bushveld plains broken by small hills.

The king sent regiments of Bafokeng men to the Kimberley diamond mines to earn cash wages to buy the land, which was then held in trust by Lutheran missionaries, in the era before black people could legally acquire land. In the 1920s, platinum deposits were discovered.

After the fall of racial apartheid, the Bafokeng fought and won a legal battle with mining giant Impala Platinum in 1999. It is now entitled to a 20% share of all the platinum mined in the region.

But critics say that the Bafokeng has become authoritarian and greedy. Although the king has reportedly invested pounds 150m on infrastructure, including improvements to clinics, schools and roads, four in 10 people are unemployed and see little of his riches.

Last October the Bafokeng tried to gain exclusive control of all land under its jurisdiction in an application to the Mafikeng High Court. This is opposed by communities who claim they fall under the political control of the Bafokeng only because of a quirk of colonial and apartheid history.

Eric Mokuoa, a co-ordinator for the Benchmarks Foundation, an organisation monitoring corporate social responsibility, said: "Some communities are not originally Bafokeng . This has been overlooked. In general, people are not happy about the way money has been spent. They feel they deserve a share of the wealth. In the areas where mining takes place there is poverty and unemployment. It is our view as a community the Bafokeng have been greedy."

Mokuoa feels that the Bafokeng 's positive reputation deserves closer scrutiny. "The administration is very powerful and has a way of attracting western media and showing them one side," he said. "It's
short-sighted to call it a success story when there are people in the system saying it's flawed. These people are voiceless and unable to express the alternative."

This view was echoed by Henk Smith of South Africa's Legal Resources Centre, which is representing the communities in the court case. "The Royal Bafokeng Nation has excellent PR," he said. "One would like to say it's a success story, but unfortunately there's a significant proportion left out of it. We have to look at the broader picture. There's a clear division between those who benefit and those who do not. A large majority are simply excluded. It depends on your status, which is related to your historic links with the royal family."

A spokesman for the Bafokeng denied that it serves only a narrow elite. " Bafokeng land is communal land, not owned by any individual but the community as a unit," Mpueleng Pooe said. "It was purchased through communal use of resources and that history is documented.

"The investments are made on behalf of the nation as a unit. The benefits flow back to the community and are deployed for the common good of the community. These pockets of people who want something different are missing these key issues."

On the imminent legal action, he said only: "As citizens of this country, anybody is entitled to approach the courts if they feel aggrieved about one situation or another."

04 June 2010

THEY GET RICH ON PLATINUM WHILST WE DIE FROM POLLUTION

Royal Bafokeng Nation, Anglo Platinum, and Impala Platinum are sell outs- the new economic apartheid.
 
We assert in our contest against the Royal Bafokeng Nation in the ongoing Mafikeng High Court Case 999/08 that our forefathers bought the land which the Bafokeng are claiming title to and on which there has been unaccountable and irresponsible mining by Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Xstrata mining companies.

We submit that the three mining companies, including others, are colluding with the South African National Government and the Royal Bafokeng Nation to rape the land of our forefathers, in the process maiming and suppressing dissenting voices against the injustices they perpetrate.

The poverty stricken communities of the Bafokeng Nation and the surrounding mine settlements live in abhorrent conditions mainly as a result of the mining operations. Besides our claims to our ancestral land, the Bafokeng communities are on a daily basis subjected to gross human, environmental and economic rights violations at the hands of these mining companies, the Royal Bafokeng Nation and the South African Government.

To protect their malicious interests, these perpetrators condone the formation and use of covert security companies, led by Zietsman (ex-Koevoet operative) and ex-soldiers of the former apartheid government’s covert military operations.

Our hard fought struggle for a Constitutional State have now sucked up to the exploitative, bloodsucking, neo-colonialist, multinational mining conglomerates.

So much for our liberation! So much for our Constitution! So much for our fallen heroes! So much for the freedom generation, our children, our future!

01 June 2010

Professor Partridge on house cracks at Luka Village caused by Impala Platinum mine blasting

Professor Partridge found in his first report that Impala Platinum Mine blasts causes houses cracks in Luka. In the peer review report, it was found that continued mine blasts will cause cracks and or exarcebate existing ones. Mine blasts have not stopped since and the authorities are silent. Luka Village is heavily undermined by Impala Platinum mine operations. Click on the link below for the report on the cracks.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B72gJZ75Jz7tZDUyZDk1Y2ItZWE1Ny00Yzk4LWFmZDctOTFjY2M2MzQxZjQz&hl=en

06 April 2010

The affidavit of Bafokeng Land Buyers Association, Setuke Family and Thekwana Community opposing Royal Bafokeng Nation's Mafikeng High Court Application

Follow this link and enjoy .....
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B72gJZ75Jz7tOGIyMjFmNzgtOGRhZS00ZGIzLThjMDUtZDliZGYyNTliMWIx&hl=en


PS - You will have to read this document with Gavin Capps annexure found in the next link below this post

How Bafokeng Communities (Mogono, Ba-Phiring in Luka ,Chaneng, Thekwana, Tsitsing, Marakana, Photsaneng and others) purchased their land

Follow the link below and enjoy the reading ....
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B72gJZ75Jz7tNDhjZWVmNzEtYjk5Yi00ZDVjLWI1OTUtNjJhZTZkNmRhNmZk&hl=en

Land, Mineral Wealth and the Militarisation of the Bafokeng

Thokonoko writes

“In time of universal deceit, speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act”- George Owell.

Corporate dictators are puppet-king makers as our beloved lands are pillaged and poisoned. Racial tensions will rise as exploiters divide to rule as never before in their century long wars. Without access to land or equitable distribution of resources wealth, we lay the foundation for a crime ridden, debt laden society. We must ask ourselves: is this the way? Despite immeasurable wealth, kleptocracies disguised as monarchies ensure a grinding poverty for the majority. South Africa has the greatest disparity between rich and poor with the highest incidence of AIDS, on earth! This is no small co-incidence. It is the ongoing legacy of an unfettered mining industry that cares not for the well being of the many whilst enriching the few.

The militarization of the Bafokeng

Regarding the alleged irregular spending of some R86million by Nial Caroll’s brother, Council instructed that those that were found to be responsible be fired. The Chief came to their defence and ordered that the Council would have to fire him (the Chief) first!
It is reported the Bafokeng Chief bought himself a fighter helicopter worth over R96 million. It is understood that the Bafokeng Council declined the purchase of the helicopter, but the Chief came personally in the following Council meeting and put the resolution to a vote. The majority voted for the purchase. There is word going around that the Bafokeng security company has also been recruiting retired ex soldiers from the then Bophuthatswana army and SADF. The Bafokeng Chief authorised the purchase of more security vehicles, many of which has been seen roving around in increasing numbers around the peace loving communities of Bafokeng. On Monday 22nd March, a recruitment drive was carried around Luka, calling for the unemployed to register at the Bafokeng Plaza for security courses, where after graduates will be trained for crowd control!
The Bafokeng security is led by a Adolph Zietsmann, allegedly an ex Koevoet operative and the mastermind behind the ‘militirisation’ of the Bafokeng. Social activists around Bafokeng communities are worried by the threat made by the Bafokeng Chief in two separate community meetings that he (the Chief) will use force against those who shows dissent to him. Should the Bafokeng community and civil society be worried? Should the national Security and Intelligence be concerned?

05 April 2010

Chaneng Community says Title Deed First!

On the 23rd January 2010, Chaneng community, which is a stone throw away from the world renowned Sun City Hotel, endorsed their intention to challenge the Mafikeng High Court application by the Bafokeng Royal Nation to have the community’s land, Styldrift 90JQ transferred in the name of the Royal Bafokeng Nation.

The community adopted the motto ‘TITLE DEED FIRST, NEGOTIATIONS AFTER! This was taken ‘to stop individuals to run to the Bafokeng and the mines to negotiate for themselves, selling-out the community by using the land claim to threaten the mines and the Bafokeng to enrich themselves’, warned March Motene, the community leader who has been in the forefront of the claim. March was confirmed by the community to be the organiser and coordinator of the land claim. She liaises the community claim with the other land claimants through the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association. She also facilitates communication with the community lawyers and the dissemination of information on the status and process of the claim.

The youth of Chaneng informed the community that it intended marching to the Styldrift project ( a mining project between the Bafokeng Royal Nation and Anglo Platinum) to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with what they described as false promises made by the Bafokeng to the community. ‘They are taking the community for granted’, exclaimed Joseph Mogobe, the community youth leader.

02 April 2010

The Inaugration of Kgosi Solly Rammereki Mekgwe of Baphiring of Luka

It was a historic day for many of the Baphiring community of Luka village, Phokeng, Rustenburg, to have witnessed the once in a life time inauguration of their Kgosi, Solly Rammereki Mekgwe. The ceremony, which coincided with the South African Human rights Day was graced by the presence of Kgosi Mabalane of Mabaalstadt, Kgosi Matlapeng of Molatedi and Kgosi Sefanyetso of Moubana, started at around 10am with a prayer and the hoisting of the Baphiring flag.

Lucas Mekgwe, in introducing guests, explained that Baphiring are an ancient community which was led by a chief when they arrived in the Phokeng-Rustenburg area. That the community actually settled near the present day Impala Platinum mine’s minerals processing plant, they were in fact on their way back home to their brothers and sisters who are now settled near Koster. Their journey was cut short by Paul Kruger who wanted to use them for slave labour in his fields.

Kgosi Mabalane thanked Baphiring for their continued quest for stronger ties with the Baphiring of Mabaalstadt and acknowledged the birth seniority of Baphiring of Luka.

Rakgadi wa Kgosi Mekgwe, Mme Basetsana Monaledi also gave a heartening speech on her undying love and respect for Baphiring. She pleaded and urged the community to love their incumbent Kgosi, and to open their hearts for him when he pays them well wishing visits at their homes. She said the spread of beauty can only be possible when there is love at home.

On behalf of the Rustenburg Local Municipality, Member of the Mayoral Committee, Councillor Olga Chauke promised to urge the powers that be, to declare the grave of Reverend Morrison, the American priest who established the AME church in Luka, and who is buried in the local graveyard (Lotia-Phiring) next to Kgosi ya Baphiring, Kgosi Ramotse Stuurman Mekgwe, as a heritage site.

The inauguration ritual involved the handing of a spear and a shield to the incumbent Kgosi by his rangwane (younger brother to Kgosi’s father). Symbolically, Kgosi would use the spear to attack community enemies and to defend the community using the shield.

In his acceptance speech, Kgosi Mekgwe promised to have an open door policy, and to consult with the community Council on all matters concerning his administration. He thanked the presence of Magosi and wished for stronger working relations amongst them going forward. Kgosi Mekgwe reiterated his commitment towards the community’s restitution claim for its ancestral land which includes Doornspruit 106JQ, Turfontein 262 JQ, Doornspruit 84JQ. Kgosi invited all 17 dikgosana of Kgotla-Kgolo ya Phiring to work together, and promised to launch a challenge that they be enrolled for service allowance (salaries) when serving as headmen. In conclusion, Kgosi wished for peace and rain.

Bame Mokgatlhe, thanked Baphiring for the gracious ceremony, and promised to urge his family, Kgotla ya Kgosing to support Baphiring in their quest for justice and land restitution. He said that there was enough for everyone in the Bafokeng to benefit from the Bafokeng wealth, and that it was improper for Kgosi to rule by himself without consulting with his family and the land buyers. He gave an analogy that when a three feet pot sagged on one leg under the heat of fire, it would eventually fall and all its wealth spilled for no one enjoy. He said that Bafokeng Kgosi and Kgosi Mekgwe himself, as heads of their constituencies, could not rule without the neck (Kgotla ya Kgosing/community council) and the body (being the communities at large).

In closing the ceremony, the former acting mayor of the Rustenburg Local Municipality, Mr. Phistus Sebedi Mekgoe, thanked all for coming, and urged the attendants to clap their hands for the conspicuous absence of the Bafokeng tribal Council who were invited to the ceremony, but never bothered to send an apology for their non-attendance.
The community clapped! The brass band rendered a national anthem, and the ceremony dispersed for festivities.

Mogono is robbed of a gallant, humble servant

Mogono youth found it strange that the late Tshepo Mputle, a tireless social and community activist, succumbed to a mysterious headache, at the time that the Mogono Community and the Mputle Family are opposing the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s (RBN) court application at the Mafikeng High Court. It is not strange to some, as another senior Councillor pointed out, that Tshepo had recently developed an ‘uncooperative’ tendency within the RBN Council, staging walk outs in some Council meetings he was not happy with.

Tshepo, an elected RBN Councillor for the Northern Region led the most difficult of the four regions, termed the ‘rebels region’. The region comprises of Luka, Mogono, Chaneng, Rasimone and Robega. Rapetsana, Head of Dikgosana in the Bafokeng Council, noted at the funeral, that Tshepo passed away at a time when they were both to embark on a programme to ‘work’ on the region.

The Mogono community remembers Tshepo for his active role in the Kgotla affairs, and for chairing a community Kgotla in around 2005/6 when Richard Spoor consulted with the Kgotla on their land, mining and environmental issues against Bafokeng and Impala mines. Tshepo was among a Kgotla delegation that travelled to the Department of Minerals and Energy’s offices in Klerksdorp to submit an objection by the Kgotla against Impala Platinum mine’s application for their new order mining rights. Tshepo Mputle was actively involved in the preparations for the inauguration of the late Kgosi Mogono, who was also very fond of the young Tshepo’s resilience. Kgosi Mogono passed away (also under mysterious circumstances) after serving only a year in office and having expressed his support for the community’s land restitution.

Following Tshepo’s funeral, Kgotla ya Mogono took a resolution on the 21st February 2010 to challenge the Application in the Mafikeng High Court by the Royal Bafokeng Nation to transfer and register the community’s farms: Klein Doornspruit 108JQ (Mogono) and Hartbeestspruit 88JQ (Melloe) into the name of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The community wants the farms transferred and registered in the name of the community.

Tsitsing Community can administer its own land

Three kraals/families of the Tsitsing community lay claim to Bierfontein 120JQ and Welbekend 117JQ. The families are incensed by the Mafikeng High Court order which granted (if there are no valid objections) transference and registration of the community’s farms in the name of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The families claim to have previously stopped one project earmarked for a filling station on their land. They claim the Royal Bafokeng Nation had blessed the Project without consulting with them first on how the community was to benefit from the project.

Phillemon Khunou added that, there has been mining projects on Welbekend by Impala Platinum which the community has not been consulted on. “We want the title transferred and registered in the community name so that we are able to manage our own lands and just like those other communities like Mamerotse and Tantanana who are currently managing their own land through Communal Property Associations’. ‘We want to manage and administer our land for ourselves’, he emphasised. ‘The Bafokeng were initially afforded a fudiciary duty to administer our land for us, and not to benefit from the land and at our exclusion. The community of Tsitsing must be benefiting from their own land, and not the Bafokeng in Phokeng’, Phillemon, having been active in local politics since childhood observed that the recent ‘100 days to the 2010 World Cup’ celebrations were brought to Tsitsing Stadium during the time the Court Case was being heard in Mafikeng. ‘The community was not aware that there was a Court case going on in Mafikeng, they were brought this 100 days celebration event to distract them from seeing the real picture that their land was being transferred’, he fumed.

Photsaneng Land Claim will be finalised

At a meeting held at Bleskop on the Makgatlha family in Photsaneng instructed their representatives to challenge the Mafikeng High Court application by the Bafokeng Royal Nation to have their land, Klipfontein 300JQ registered and transferred in the name of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The family endorsed the submission done by the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association who opposes registration and transference of all the 50 + 11 farms until the claims by all the communities have been resolved. Interestingly, the Gauteng Land Claims Commission, who gazetted the Klipfontein 300JQ community land claim in June 2008 is also opposing the Bafokeng application. The family intends approaching the Land Claims Court to intervene to the slow and uncoorporative service by the Commission in expediting their claim. ‘The Bafokeng, by taking the matter to the Mafikeng High Court is simply applying a delaying legal tactic, distracting progress on the gazetted claim possibly through the Land Claims Court’, says Thusi Rapoo, family representative and organiser of the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association.

‘We will thrash out the case in Mafikeng and continue steadfastly to have the Commissioner and the Land Claims Court to finalise our gazetted claim’, he said assertively.

Some are benefiting from the Bafokeng….

Marakana-


The community of Marakana (Mosenthal) has the strongest evidence that shows that they bought their land Tweedepoort 283JQ to the exclusion of the broader Bafokeng ‘tribe’ and for their own exclusive use, Missionary PH Wenhold states it clearly in his affidavit that the farm was bought by the community which was then under the leadership of Modisakeng, Mogajane Mahuma and Mogoboa. Concerned community members who have approached the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association for assistance, are worried that some members of the community are afraid of coming out in support of the claim. ‘Some are benefiting from Bafokeng while others are simply afraid of witchcraft and dying’ said one of the members.

Will the Zuma administration give us our land back?

Asks Gash Nape

As committed as ever on their land claim, the Thekwana community converged once more on the 07th February 2010 to give a clear mandate to the representatives to oppose the Mafikeng High Court application by the Bafokeng Royal Nation. The representatives were offered a choice to consult lawyers of repute to challenge the Bafokeng including the Legal Resources Centre. The representatives have since approached the Legal Resources Centre who has officially taken up the matter, and will once more represent the community. The LRC was approached since it represented the community before and is therefore familiar with the community claim. The LRC was also approached for their impeccable record in assisting poor rural communities with their land claims.


We requested the LRC not only to oppose the application in Mafikeng, but also to lodge a counter-claim with the Land Claims Court. We want to see our claim finalised and our land registered and transferred in our community name.


We had hoped that we would have achieved that by now in this year, 2010, It is however clear that there are people working tirelessly day and night and behind closed doors to ensure that our community does not get the land of our forefathers back. They want to continue to reap the mining benefits, mining irresponsibly, while we suffer under terrible living conditions.


The government of President Mandela and President Mbeki have since passed without help. It is now Zuma in office, we await to see what he will do for us. His Minister has been indifferent to our plight so far.

Mokgatle Family Lodges their Claim

The descendants of Petrus Mokgatle, have instructed lawyers to oppose the Royal Bafokeng Nation’s application in the Mafikeng High Court, Case no 999/08 in which case the RBN seeks to transfer the family’s farm Zanddrift 82JQ into its name. The family is opposed to such transference. The 1906 Lagden Commission report shows evidence given by Petrus Mokgatle himself, testifying that he bought the farm for himself.

Status on the Land Claim Process

On the 10th December 2009, the Judge at the Mafikeng High Court ordered that all the communities listed in this newsletter including the Setuke Family, the Mputle Family and the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association, submit to the Court before the 26th February 2010, their application to be accepted as intervening parties and to show cause as to why their application should be accepted by the Court. By agreement, the deadline of the 26th February was extended to the 26th March 2010.

The Legal Resources Centre, acting for the Bafokeng Land Buyers Association and some of the abovementioned communities is expected to submit affidavits to oppose the Bafokeng application.
Following the application by the intervening parties (i.e the Association and others), a ruling should be given shortly as to who will be accepted as intervening parties to the litigation on the matter.